Movement and mental health: Behavioral correlates of anxiety and depression among children of 6–17 years old in the U.S.

Proportions of youth with visual impairments meeting 24‐hr movement guidelines

“…This figure appears lower than estimates of proportions of youth without disabilities in prior research, which can range from 7.2% (Roman‐Vinas et al, ) to 18.4% (Berglind et al, ). As such, most youth with VIs in this study (94.2%) did not meet all three of the 24‐hr movement guidelines and therefore did not take advantage of the collective, integrative physiological (e.g., favourable body mass index) and psychological (e.g., reductions in symptoms of anxiety and depression) benefits of meeting each of these guidelines (Carson et al, ; Zhu et al, ).…”

“…The 24‐hr movement framework, presented by Tremblay et al (), includes recommendations for youth to engage in (a) ≥60 min of moderate‐to‐vigorous PA, (b) ≤120 min of recreational screen time, and (c) 9 to 11 hr of sleep per night for those aged 5–13 years and 8 to 10 hr per night for those aged 14–17 years. Research supports this more holistic and comprehensive perspective of health behaviours; meeting all of these 24‐hr movement guidelines has been associated with more positive physiological (e.g., body mass index and systolic and diastolic blood pressure) and psychological (e.g., well‐being indices and symptoms of anxiety and depression) outcomes, compared with meeting health behaviour guidelines in isolation (Carson et al, ; Roman‐Vinas et al, ; Zhu et al, ).…”

“…Physical activity (PA) has been identified as a modifiable lifestyle behaviour that can help reduce the likelihood of developing obesity and other physiological (e.g., diabetes and heart disease) and psychological (e.g., anxiety and depression) health issues (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, ; Laurson, Lee, Gentile, Walsh, & Eisenmann, ; Zhu, Haegele, & Healy, ). Because of the health enhancing effects of regular PA, guidelines internationally recommend that youth aged 5–17 years engage in at least 60 min of moderate‐to‐vigorous PA daily (World Health Organization, ).…”

Are one-year changes in adherence to the 24-hour Movement Guidelines associated with depressive symptoms among youth?

“…Similar to our results, an Australian cross-sectional study found sleep to be the only movement behaviour associated with depressive symptomatology in all youth, while inverse associations were found with ST guideline adherence in females and PA adherence in males (43). In other cross-sectional research, Janssen et al found adherence to each guideline had an inverse association with 'emotional problem' scores to an equivalent degree (52); whereas, Zhu et al found youth meeting recommendations for MVPA and sleep were less likely to have received a depression diagnosis, but no evidence of an association with ST (53). Conversely, in a cohort study of children and youth, meeting ST and PA recommendations at age 10/11 predicted fewer mental illness-related physician visits over 8 years but meeting the sleep recommendations had no effect (54).…”

“…Methodology differences may contribute to inconsistent results, including cross-sectional versus prospective designs, types of ST included, and mental health indicators. Hayward et al used self-reported depressive symptoms, while Janssen et al employed a composite score (including depressive and other symptoms), Zhu et al assessed parental reports of physician-diagnosed depression, and Loewen et al linked survey data to administrative healthcare records (43,(53)(54). Further prospective research of large youth populations remains necessary to determine the independent associations of adherence to each movement behaviour recommendation for various mental health and illness outcomes; however, overall, evidence suggests benefits for youth meeting more recommendations.…”