Abstract
This study was designed to examine the hourly variation in and the interplay between physical activity and sedentary behavior (SB) in order to highlight key time periods for physical activity interventions for children. Data for physical activity and SB obtained with ActiGraph in 56 boys and 47 girls aged from 8 to 11 years. These data were divided into sixty minute-time samples for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and SB, and analyzed using a principal component analysis (PCA) and correlation statistics. The PCA provides 10 factors which account for 80.4% of the inertia. Only two of these factors did not display competition between MVPA and SB. Contrary to some reports, a coefficient of correlation of —.68 (p,<10−4) was found between daily time spent at MVPA and SB. Some salient traits of children’s behaviors were shown through PCA. The results suggested that efficacy of interventions targeting the morning hours (07:00 AM–11:59 AM) and the afternoon period (02:00 PM–05:59 PM) warrants attention. H. Hubert, herve.hubert@univ-lille2.fr
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Bailey, R. C., Olson, J., Pepper, S. L., Porszasz, J., Bartow, T. J., &Cooper, D. M. (1995). The level and tempo of children’s physical activities: An observational study.Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise,27, 1033–1041.
Biddle, S. J. H., &Gorely, T. (2005). Couch kids: Myth or reality.The Psychologist,18, 276–279.
Biddle, S. J. H., Gorely, T., &Stensel, D. (2004). Health-enhancing physical activity and sedentary behaviour in children and adolescents.Journal of Sports Sciences,22, 679–701.
Cole, T. J., Bellizi, M. C., Flegal, K. M., &Dietz, W. H. (2000). Establishing a standard definition for child overweight and obesity worldwide: International survey.British Medical Journal,320, 1240–1243.
Cooper, A. R., Page, A. S., Foster, L. F., &Qahwaji, D. (2003). Commuting to school: Are children who walk more physically active?American Journal of Preventive Medicine,25, 273–276.
Dietz, W. H. (1996). The role of lifestyle in health: The epidemiology and consequences of inactivity.Proceedings of the Nutrition Society,55, 829–840.
Durant, R. H., Baranowski, T., Davis, H., Rhodes, T., Thompson, W. O., Greaves, K., &Puhl, J. (1993). Reliability and variability of indicators of heart-rate monitoring in children.Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise,25, 389–395.
Epstein, L. H., Paluch, R. A., Gordy, C. C., &Dorn, J. (2000). Decreasing sedentary behaviors in treating pediatric obesity.Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine,154, 220–226.
Epstein, L. H., Saelens, B. E., Myers, M. D., &Vito, D. (1997). Effects of decreasing sedentary behaviors on activity choice on obese children.Health Psychology,16, 107–113.
Epstein, L. H., Saelens, B. E., &O’Brien, J. G. (1995). Effects of reinforcing increases in active versus decreases in sedentary behavior in obese children.International Journal Behavioral Medicine,2, 41–50.
Epstein, L. H., Smith, J. A., Vara, L. S., &Rodefer, J. S. (1991). Behavioral economic analysis of activity choice in obese children.Health Psychology,10, 311–316.
Falgairette, G., Gavarry, O., Bernard, T., &Hebbelinck, M. (1996). Evaluation of habitual physical activity from a week’s heart rate monitoring in French school children.European Journal of Applied Physiology,14, 153–161.
Fox, K. R. (2004). Childhood obesity and the role of physical activity.Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health,14, 75–84.
Guinhouya, C. B., Hubert, H., Dupont, G., &Durocher, A. (2005). The recess period: A key moment of prepubescents’ daily physical activity?International Electronic Journal of Health Education,8, 126–134.
Guinhouya, C. B., Hubert, H., Soubrier, S., Vilhelm, C., Lemdani, M., &Durocher, M. (2006). Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity: Discrepancies in accelerometry-based cut-points.Obesity Research,14, 774–777.
Jago, R., Baranowski, T., Thompson, J., Baranowski, D. J., &Greaves, K. A. (2005). Sedentary behavior, not TV viewing, predicts physical activity among 3- to 7-year-old children.Pediatric Exercise Science,17, 364–376.
Janz, K. F., Golden, J. C., Hansen, J. R., &Mahoney, L. T. (1992). Heart rate monitoring of physical activity in children and adolescents: The Muscatine study.Pediatrics,89, 256–261.
Marshall, S. J., Biddle, S. J. H., Gorely, T., Cameron, N., &Murdey, I. (2004). Relationships between media use, body fatness and physical activity in children and youth: A meta-analysis.International Journal of Obesity,28, 1238–1246.
Marshall, S. J., Biddle, S. J. H., Sallis, J. F., McKenzie, T. L., &Conway, T. L. (2002). Clustering of sedentary behaviors and physical activity among youth: A cross-national study.Pediatric Exercise Science,14, 401–417.
McCann, S. E., Weiner, J., Graham, S., Freudenheim, J. L. (2001). Is principal component analysis necessary to characterize dietary behavior in studies of diet and disease?Public Health Nutrition,4, 903–908.
Mota, J., Santos, P., Guerra, S., Ribeiro, J. C., &Duarte, J. A. (2003). Patterns of daily physical activity during school days in children and adolescents.American Journal of Human Biology,15, 547–553.
Nilsson, A., Ekelund, U., Yngve, A., &Sjöström, M. (2002). Assessing physical activity among children with accelerometers using different time sampling intervals and placements.Pediatric Exercise Science,14, 75–84.
Puyau, M. R., Adolph, A. L., Vohra, F. A., &Butte, N. F. (2002). Validation and calibration of physical activity monitors in children.Obesity Research,10, 150–157.
Randall, E., Marshall, J. R., Graham, S., &Brasure, J. (1991). High risk health behaviors associated with various dietary patterns.Nutrition & Cancer,16, 135–151.
Reilly, J. J., Coyle, J., Kelly, L., Burke, G., Grant, S., &Paton, J. Y. (2003). An objective method of measurement of sedentary behavior in 3- to 4-year-olds.Obesity Research,11, 1155–1158.
Rennie, K. L., Johnson, L., &Jebb, S. A. (2005). Behavioural determinants of obesity.Best Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism,19, 343–358.
Ridgers, N. D., &Stratton, G (2005). Physical activity during school recess: The Liverpool Sporting Playgrounds Project.Pediatric Exercise Science,17, 281–290.
Timperio, A., Ball, K., Salmon, J., Roberts, R., Giles-Corti, B., Simmons, D., et al. (2006). Personal, family, social, and environmental correlated of active commuting to school.American Journal of Preventive Medicine,30, 45–51.
Trost, S. G., Pate, R. R., Freedson, P. S., Sallis, J., &Taylor, W. C. (2000). Using objective physical activity measures with youth: How many days of monitoring are needed?Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise,32, 426–431.
Tudor-Locke, C., Ainsworth, B. E., &Popkin, B. M. (2001). Active commuting to school: An overlooked source of children’s physical activity?Sports Medicine,31, 309–313.
Ursin, G., Ziegler, R. G., Subar, A. F., Graubard, B. I., Haile, R. W., &Hoover, R. (1993). Dietary patterns associated with low-fat diet in the national examination follow-up study: Identification of potential confounders for epidemiologic analyses.American Journal of Epidemiology,137, 916–927.
Zask, A., van Beurden, E., Barnett, L., Brooks, L. O., &Dietrich, U. C. (2001). Active school playgrounds—Myth or reality? Results of the “Move It Groove It” Project.Preventive Medicine,33, 402–408.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The authors are indebted to the children of Chopin and Taine elementary schools (Villeneuve d’Ascq) and Jean Monnet primary school (Illies) and to their parents for their enthusiastic participation.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Guinhouya, C.B., Soubrier, S., Vilhelm, C. et al. Physical activity and sedentary lifestyle in children as time-limited functions: Usefulness of the principal component analysis method. Behavior Research Methods 39, 682–688 (2007). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193040
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193040