from the New Brunswick Medical Training Centre in Canada asked secondary school
students in Montreal about their participation in 29 physical activities over
five years and found that 94% of the students took part in team activities when
they were in grade 7, but that declined to 50% for girls and 69% for boys by
the time they were finishing high school.
Yet,
although many gave up participating in team sports, only 10% of the students
abandoned their individual physical activities during that same period of time,
the researchers found.
The study
also found that the most popular physical activities in seventh grade —
including walking, running, and physical conditioning — were most likely to be
taken up again five years later by about half of the students. Walking was the
only activity that girls continued to participate in at the same level
throughout the study period.
The
findings are in the July issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Lead
author Mathieu Belanger, research director at the New Brunswick Medical
Training Centre, said habits formed during the teen years tend to continue into
adulthood, and early adolescence seems the best time to introduce programs
designed to encourage healthy activity levels.
