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Move and Improve Self Esteem

New Research Links Physical Activity to Psychological Well Being.

Photo Illustration By Miles Anderson

According to the Centers for Disease Control, childhood obesity has more than tripled since 1980. Certainly, the tendency toward being overweight in many cases has a genetic basis, but genetic predisposition toward a certain body type doesn’t preclude the influence of physical exercise and a healthy diet on weight reduction.
Not only does being overweight or obese in childhood contribute to health risks, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea and asthma, but also to psychosocial risks. Research bears out the supposition that overweight children are often the targets of schoolyard taunts and find themselves excluded from peer social groups. The psychological stress can cause low self-esteem, which in turn may interfere with academic and social achievement.

Effects of Physical Activity: Dose-Response

Recently, Karen Petty, Ph.D., clinical psychologist at Charlie Norwood VAMC and clinical assistant professor of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at the Medical College of Georgia, studied the link between physical activity and psychological well-being among overweight, sedentary children. Her results were published in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.
Two hundred and seven children, ages 7-11, were divided into three study groups and followed over a 13-week period. One group engaged in physical activity for 20 minutes each day. Another group participated in physical activity for 40 minutes each day. A control group experienced no lifestyle change. Dr. Petty says of her findings, “The more physical activity or training they experienced each day, the fewer depressive symptoms and the higher the levels of self-worth.” The children who exercised for 40 minutes a day enjoyed the most benefit. Getting up and moving not only improves physical health, as has been demonstrated by numerous studies, but it also greatly improves how overweight and obese children feel about themselves and the world around them.
 

Physical Activity Versus Exercise

This does not imply, however, that parents of overweight children should decide today to enroll their children in a program of vigorous exercise. Dr. Petty is careful to clarify that physical activity and exercise are two distinct behaviors. “Physical activity,” she says, “is any activity that gets your body moving.” It could include gardening, walking the dog or taking the stairs instead of the elevator. She defines exercise, on the other hand, as “physical activity that is planned, structured and repetitive.” Aerobics, yoga and weight training, for example, fall into that category. Sustained physical activity, for less than an hour a day, is enough to achieve heightened positive perception of well-being and a decrease in reported depressive symptoms.

Furthermore, Dr. Petty advises parents to avoid “the idea of exercise as a punishment and the idea of exercise as drudgery.”
Parents who complain about exercise or physical activities, or who avoid them altogether, greatly influence how their children think about those things. Forcing a child to take up running or signing a child up for a soccer team or nagging a child to go out and ride his bike, when the child doesn’t like those endeavors, will only leave the her with the impression that exercise is not fun. Worse, making a child run laps for not cleaning his room or for talking back or a similar transgression causes exercise to take on negative connotations in the child’s mind. It leaves the child with the impression that physical activity and exercise should be avoided. Thus, the role of parents is not just to model positive attitudes and behaviors, but to also help their children find activities they enjoy doing and that hold the child’s attention and enthusiasm. “Fun activities are much more motivating than things that feel like work,” says Dr. Petty.

Implications for the General Population

Although obesity has sky-rocketed in the last three decades, only 19.6 percent of children ages 6-11 and 18.1 percent of adolescents ages 12-19 are obese. So what implications does Dr. Petty’s study have for children within a normal weight range? She asserts that children benefit from physical activity no matter their weight status. “Exercise influences our brain chemistry in a positive manner, to have anti-depressant effects,” says Dr. Petty. “In addition, any time children and adolescents learn new skills and how to do things on their own, they have the opportunity to increase self-worth.”

Making physical activity a family affair, rather than simply an enterprise of youth, opens mom, dad and kids to both the health and psychosocial benefits. And remember, physical activity doesn’t necessarily mean systematic training for a 5K. It could be throwing a baseball in the backyard one afternoon, pulling weeds in the flower beds the next afternoon and taking the dog for a walk the following day. The idea is to get the body moving for about 40 minutes every day. “I’ve yet to meet someone,” says Dr. Petty, “who can’t benefit from exercise in some way; either in terms of physical health or mental health, or both.” She offers the following advice for getting started and staying motivated:

It takes less than an hour of physical activity each day to feel better, to increase self-worth, to decrease depressive indicators, to make a real change for the better. “I think the results emphasizing the biological benefits of exercise apply to everyone,” says Dr. Petty. So come on, get up and get moving.

Lucy Adams is a freelance writer and the author of Tuck Your Skirt in Your Panties and Run. She lives in Thomson, Ga., with her husband and their four children.