(original) (raw)

TY - JOUR AU - Schmidt, Steffen C. E. AU - Anedda, Bastian AU - Burchartz, Alexander AU - Eichsteller, Ana AU - Kolb, Simon AU - Nigg, Carina AU - Niessner, Claudia AU - Oriwol, Doris AU - Worth, Annette AU - Woll, Alexander PY - 2020 DA - 2020/12/11 TI - Physical activity and screen time of children and adolescents before and during the COVID-19 lockdown in Germany: a natural experiment JO - Scientific Reports SP - 21780 VL - 10 IS - 1 AB - The impact of COVID-19 on social life has been drastic and global. However, the different numbers of cases and different actions in different countries have been leading to various interesting yet unexplored effects on human behavior. In the present study, we compare the physical activity and recreational screen time of a representative sample of 1711 4- to 17-year-olds before and during the strictest time of the first COVID-19 lockdown in Germany. We found that sports activity declined whereas recreational screen time increased. However, a substantial increase in habitual physical activities leads to an overall increase in physical activity among children and adolescents in Germany. The effects differ in size but not in their direction between age groups and are stable for boys and girls. We conclude from this natural experiment that physical activity among children and adolescents is highly context-driven and mutual and does not act as a functional opposite to recreational screen time. SN - 2045-2322 UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78438-4 DO - 10.1038/s41598-020-78438-4 ID - Schmidt2020 ER -