Kids Diet and Health
Even at a young age kids can have some pretty strong views about their health – and these views are reflected in their behaviour, both dietary and sporting.
Within the overall Youth TGI database is a sub-sample of over 2000, representative of the three million 11-14 year olds in Britain. Their responses to a multitude of questions about health matters and the trends in their answers are highly informative.
Over the past five years the proportion of children who say that it’s important to them to be good at sport has declined by 4% and those who say that it forms a part of their social life is down by 6%. Those who claim to ‘love playing sport’ have declined by almost 10% and, perhaps as a reflection of this, the proportion who believe that’ it is important to have the latest equipment when playing sport’ has dropped by a hefty 13% over the same five year period.
This downward trend is also in evidence within membership of sports based clubs amongst 11-14 year old boys. Athletics, basketball, cricket, hockey and tennis clubs have all seen falls by between a fifth and a third. However football has held up well, swimming is up by a seventh, rugby has seen a rise of about 20% and, most notably, membership of martial arts clubs, appears to have grown by almost half to over 8% of boys of this age.
Amongst girls of the same age athletics clubs, as well as hockey, netball, and swimming have all suffered declines of significant proportions. But again there have been dramatic increases in the case of girls for dance and martial arts clubs of some forty and sixty percent respectively. The data also shows a rise of almost a tenth in girls belonging to gymnastics clubs.
Such changes in commitment to sport are reflected in the purchasing levels for sports equipment by, or on behalf of, this age group of children. For instance, compared to 1998, those claiming to have acquired a tennis racquet in the last year have dropped 7%. Conversely those sports which have bucked the trend have seen growth. Aerobics/keep fit equipment has been acquired by 26% more 11-14’s, football boots by 13% more and rugby boots by two-thirds greater numbers than did so five years ago. Interestingly another ‘non-team-game’, golf, has also benefited with another rise by two-thirds in the numbers claiming to have got clubs in the preceding year.
All of these data may reflect the long term decline in schools commitment to sport – especially that defined as ‘competitive’ and requiring the use of large sports fields. From the perspective of the kids themselves however these shifts may be, at least partly, counterbalanced by greater awareness in the areas of food and diet. The proportion of all 11-14’s who say they ‘try not to eat too many sweets’ has risen by 6% and those regarding take away food as ‘junk’ has grown by 11% since 1998. Children of this age group who say that they prefer to eat food without artificial additives have leapt by 17% across the five years while those who say that they ‘often eat between meals’ has dropped by 7%. Those who believe that ‘people who eat health foods are strange’ have, meanwhile, plummeted by a third. Of the current crop of 11-14’s only some 24% state that they don’t care if they eat GM food.
Amongst both sexes the proportion who claim that they ‘often try to lose weight’ has crept up by 4% - with a 6% rise amongst the girls specifically. Such shifts may, in some part at least, explain the declining frequency with which both sexes claim to be using fast food restaurants either to ‘eat-in’ or take away.
Perhaps the most startling change in claimed behaviour is the rise in vegetarianism amongst 11-14 girls – up by close to a third to almost one in twelve of them.
When asked about the issues about which they have most concern, appreciation of the dangers associated with smoking have seen a rise of some 8% amongst our young group with a current peak of concern for those in the Yorkshire TV area. Concerns related to alcohol consumption show an increase of 10% across the same period and, in the case of the current data, there is a noticeable peak of concern in Scotland.
Worries related to the dangers of taking drugs remain stable when 2003 and 1998 are compared and there is very little difference between the regions in terms of the levels of concern expressed by the current crop of 11-14 year olds.
While there must be some concern with what this data shows relating to declining formal involvement in many sports it may well be the case that fashions may just be changing – and indeed what parents feel comfortable with. As regards what kids consume there may well be some long term shifts of opinion and behaviour between subsequent generations – regardless of what the advertising lobbyists demand.
