Sitting around harmful to teens’ mental health

By Around the Web

(STUDY FINDS) — LONDON — The world has spent much of 2020 stuck indoors avoiding the coronavirus pandemic. While some children may enjoy the time off from going to school and other responsibilities, it may not be the best thing for their mental health. A study looking at the mental health of children found that even an hour of light activity each day can lower their risk for depression entering adulthood.

Researchers followed more than 4,200 adolescents starting at the age of 12 to see how daily activity affected multiple symptoms of depression.

“Our findings show that young people who are inactive for large proportions of the day throughout adolescence face a greater risk of depression by age 18,” PhD student Aaron Kandola of University College London said in a statement. “It’s not just more intense forms of activity that are good for our mental health, but any degree of physical activity that can reduce the time we spend sitting down is likely to be beneficial.”

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