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Is Television Viewing a Suitable Marker of Sedentary Behavior in Young People?

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Background

Television (TV) viewing is a highly prevalent sedentary behavior in young people and has played a significant role in the assessment of sedentary behaviors. An important question to be addressed is to what extent TV viewing is a suitable indicator, or marker, of overall levels of sedentary behavior in children and adolescents. This has not yet been attempted in youth, but has already been attempted in Australian adults.

Purpose

This study was conducted to test whether TV viewing in UK teenagers is a marker of sedentary behavior more broadly and to see if the results mirror those of Australian adults.

Methods

Ecological momentary assessment time-use diaries were completed by 561 boys and 923 girls (mean age 14.67 years) in which weekday and weekend out-of-school time behaviors were recorded every 15 min.

Results

TV viewing was negatively associated with other leisure-time sedentary behaviors for both boys and girls for weekdays and weekends. Higher levels of TV viewing were associated with less time in other key sedentary behaviors, such as computer use in boys and motorized transport in girls.

Conclusions

TV viewing appears not to reflect additional time in other sedentary behaviors in British teenagers, in contrast to data from Australian women. Studies of sedentary behavior should encompass as wide a range of behaviors as possible.

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Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. We are grateful to an anonymous reviewer for raising this issue.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Sport, Exercise & Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU, UK

    Stuart J. H. Biddle Ph.D. & Trish Gorely Ph.D.

  2. San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA

    Simon J. Marshall Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Stuart J. H. Biddle Ph.D.
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  2. Trish Gorely Ph.D.
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  3. Simon J. Marshall Ph.D.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stuart J. H. Biddle Ph.D..

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Biddle, S.J.H., Gorely, T. & Marshall, S.J. Is Television Viewing a Suitable Marker of Sedentary Behavior in Young People?. ann. behav. med. 38, 147–153 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-009-9136-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-009-9136-1

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