Physical Activity for Children: Current Patterns and Guidelines

Editor’s Note

Since the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Research Digest resumed publication in 1993, we have

published ten issues devoted primarily to physical activity among children and adolescents. The papers have covered a

wide variety of topics but two in particular have been devoted to physical activity patterns and guidelines for youth. In an

early issue of the Digest, Corbin et al. (1994) outlined the need for specific physical activity guidelines for children and

youth. In 1998, the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE, 1998) and Health Education

Authority (HEA, 1998) independently developed physical activity guidelines for children. The recommendations of the

two groups were quite similar. Pate (1998) described current activity patterns of children and reviewed the various physical

activity guidelines for children. Since that time many studies describing the physical activity patterns of youth have been

published and new guidelines developed. The editors felt it was time to revisit the topic. This issue of the Digest reviews

current activity patterns of youth and current guidelines. 

The Physical Activity Patterns of Youth

Rowland (1990) presented a graph of physical activity patterns of youth. Since there was no single study available describing the

activity patterns of school-aged youth, Rowland included data from a variety of sources that used similar methodology (see Figure

1). This graphic description of the activity patterns of youth is based on estimated daily energy expenditure derived from heart rate

data. Rowland’s graph has been widely interpreted to illustrate the decrease in physical activity as youth grow older.

Figure 1.

Total Daily Energy Expenditure.

Adapted from Rowland, 1990.

Since 1990 new data have accumulated to depict the physical activity levels of youth.

It is clear that, depending on the method of assessing physical activity, patterns of

youth activity vary considerably. In the following sections of this paper, youth activity

patterns are described based on self-reported questionnaire, pedometer, and

accelerometer data. 

Questionnaire Assessments of Physical Activity

The problems associated with the use of questionnaire assessments of physical

activity among youth, particularly young children, have been well documented (Welk,

2002; Welk, Corbin, and Dale, 2000). Factors such as inaccurate recall and inability to

estimate time are of concern. The Youth Media Campaign Longitudinal Study

Series 5, No. 2 June 2004

Published quarterly by the

President’s Council on

Physical Fitness and Sports

Washington, D.C.

★

Guest Authors:

Charles B. Corbin

Robert P. Pangrazi

Arizona State University

Guy C. Le Masurier

Pennsylvania State University

★

Co-edited by:

Charles B. Corbin

Robert P. Pangrazi

Arizona State University

Deborah Young

University of Maryland

President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports

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(YMCLS) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

(CDC) (Duke et al., 2003) used parent and student responses

in an attempt to gather accurate data. This study used random

telephone interviews of a large population of youth and their

parents. Questions were asked concerning participation in

organized and free time physical activity. Results are

displayed in Table 1. Slightly more than one third of all

children 9-13 participate in organized sports, with similar

rates of involvement for males and females and for different

age groups. A large percentage of children reported

performing free-time activity with a greater percentage of

boys reporting involvement than girls. Participation was

similar across ages. Unlike the curve depicted by Rowland,

results of YMCLS show no decrease in physical activity from

age 9-13. Figure 1 is based on energy expenditure estimated

from heart rate data that includes frequency, intensity, and

duration components of physical activity while the YMCLS

information describes involvement in organized and freetime activity (level of participation only). The YMCLS data

do little to help us understand the frequency, intensity or

duration of the activities in which children are involved.

Considerably more questionnaire data are available for older

youth than for children. Adolescents have a greater ability to

recall and understand activity questions. The Youth Risk

Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBSS) is a nationwide

survey conducted by CDC to assess a wide variety of

behaviors associated with health (Grunbaum et al., 2002).

The survey asks about vigorous, moderate and strength

exercise patterns. Those youth who report doing 30 minutes

of moderate activity (activity equal to brisk walking) at least

five days a week are considered to be moderately active,

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those who report doing 20 minutes of activity that makes

them breathe hard and sweat at least three days a week are

considered to meet the vigorous activity standard, and those

who report doing three days a week of training for strength

meet the strength exercise standard. Youth who are

considered to get “insufficient exercise” fail to meet either

the moderate or the vigorous activity standard. Those

considered sedentary reported doing no 30-minute bouts of

moderate or 20-minute bouts of vigorous activity during a

seven-day period. Results of the most recent YRBSS that

relate to physical activity are presented in Figures 2-5. 

Figure 2.

Percent of students achieving vigorous exercise standard

(YRBSS)

Data from Grunbaum et al., 2002.

Figure 2 illustrates a drop in percentage of students meeting

vigorous activity standards from grades 9-12 that is not

dissimilar to the drop in energy expenditure described by

Rowland. A greater proportion of males as compared to

females reported being active based on the YRBSS vigorous

activity question. This difference between the sexes is more

dramatic than portrayed in Figure 1 with a greater percentage

of girls failing to meet the vigorous activity criterion in the

upper grades. 

Figure 3.

Percent of high school youth meeting standards for strength

exercise (YRBSS)

Data from Grunbaum et al., 2002.

For strength activities (see Figure 3) males are again more

active than females and a higher percentage of grade 9 youth

participate than grade 12 youth. The rate of decrease is not as

dramatic as for vigorous activity, however.

Many more 12th graders than 9th graders reported doing

insufficient physical activity (see Figure 4). There was a 

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Figure 5.

Percent of studebts achieving no exercise (YRBSS)

Data from Grunbaum et al., 2002.

Figure 6.

Percent of high school youth enrolled in physical education

(TRBSS)

Data from Grunbaum et al., 2002.

Figure 7.

Percent of high school youth enrolled in daily physical

education (YRBSS)

Data from Grunbaum et al., 2002.

to assess large samples of youth. Welk (2002) describes

many of these techniques in detail. In this paper, data from

two types of objective assessment devices, the pedometer

and the accelerometer, are described. Pedometers are small

digital devices that detect steps by responding to vertical

accelerations. They are popular for the objective

measurement of physical activity (Le Masurier, 2004b; Le

Masurier & Tudor-Locke, 2003; Le Masurier et al., 2004;

Tudor-Locke & Myers, 2001) because they are relatively

inexpensive ($10-30) and unobtrusive in addition to being

relatively accurate (Le Masurier & Tudor-Locke, 2003;

Figure 4.

Percent of students achieving insufficient exercise

(YRBSS)

Data from Grunbaum et al., 2002.

greater difference in insufficient activity for girls than boys.

Those who do insufficient activity (see Figure 5) do some

moderate or vigorous activity, just not enough to meet either

the moderate or vigorous activity standard. Those who are

sedentary did not participate in any moderate or vigorous

activity over a seven-day period. A greater proportion of

females were sedentary (9 to 12%) than males (6 to 9%). The

proportion of totally inactive teens is considerably less than

the 24% reported for adults (USDHHS, 2000), however, the

fact that so many teens are totally sedentary is of concern.

Questionnaire Assessments of Physical Education

Involvement

Though not a direct measure of physical activity, the

opportunity to be active in physical education classes is

associated with out-of-school physical activity, and

ultimately, overall physical activity participation. The

percentage of high school youth enrolled in physical

education (not necessarily daily), based on YRBSS data

decreases even more markedly than vigorous activity

showing considerably lower percentages of involvement in

the upper grades than the lower grades. Enrollment at grade

12 is only half the enrollment of grade 9. Interestingly, girls

are as likely to participate in physical education classes as

boys at grade 9, but at grade 12 they are much less likely to

be in physical education than boys (see Figure 6). Daily

physical education enrollment is even lower, with less than

30% of boys and 20% of girls involved in the upper grades

(see Figure 7). This decline in participation is a likely

contributor to the lower physical activity accumulation of

older teens compared to younger teens. This finding is

supported by Dale et al. (2000) who showed that children

who received physical education were more active than those

who did not. The increase in total daily activity was due in

part to more activity in the school day (in physical education)

and also because children were more active outside of school 

on days when they had physical education. Results from the

1991, 1993, 1995, and 1997 YRBSS survey indicate a

decrease in daily physical education among American

adolescents (Lowry et al., 2001). From 1991 to 1997

reported daily physical education participation decreased

15.8% (45.6% to 29.8%) for males and 12.8% (37.4% to

24.6%) for females.

Pedometer Assessments of Physical Activity

In the past few years objective techniques for assessment of

physical activity have been developed that make it possible 

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Schneider et al., 2003), and valid (Bassett et al., 1996;

Crouter et al., 2003). Their limitations are that they measure

only ambulatory movements and do not accurately detect

some modes of physical activity common to children and

adolescents (e.g., bicycling, climbing, and swimming) and do

not assess the intensity of activity.

Pedometer data have now been gathered from youth of all

ages and levels in school including elementary school

children (Vincent & Pangrazi, 2002) and middle and high

school adolescents (Le Masurier, 2004a; Wilde et al., 2004).

The data are not from a national sample, as is the case for

YRBSS, but they do provide basic information on relatively

large convenience samples from the southwest United States.

Figure 8 was created using data from the studies cited above.

Consistent with YMCLS and YRBSS findings for

questionnaires, males take more steps than females at all

ages. Steps accumulated by elementary school children do

not differ by age/grade (Vincent & Pangrazi, 2002). Also

there were no differences in steps taken between 7th and 8th

grade middle school students (Le Masurier, 2004a). Wilde et

al. (2004) did find differences in activity from grade 10 to

grade 12. The general trend toward less activity involvement

in the higher grades is apparent, though not as dramatic as

for energy expenditure and questionnaire assessments. The

number of steps accumulated (average steps per day) by

school age youth is higher than reported in the literature for

adults, as male youth accumulate 11 to 13 thousand and

female youth accumulate 10 to 11 thousand steps per day

while sedentary adults range from 5 to 8 thousand steps per

day and more active adults range from 7 to 10 thousand or

more steps per day (Tudor-Locke, 2002).

Figure 8.

Mean steps/day for children and adolescents.

Based on data from Vincent & Pangrazi, 2002, Le Masurier, 2004a, and

Wilde et al., 2004.

Accelerometer Assessments of Physical Activity

Accelerometers detect movement in one or more directions,

up and down, side to side, and/or forward and backward. The

Tritrac accelerometer detects movements in all three

directions, but it is relatively large and expensive.

Unidimensional accelerometers, such as the CSA

accelerometer (CSA; MTI Health Services, Fort Walton

Beach, FL), are smaller (about the size of a pedometer) and

therefore less obtrusive than the Tritrac. They record only

vertical (up and down) accelerations that can be recorded as

activity counts or steps, but have been shown to provide data

similar to the more expensive multidimensional monitors.

The CSA has the ability to collect activity counts over user

specified (e.g., 1-minute, 30-second, etc.) intervals for

several days. Accelerometer outputs are associated with

MET levels and allow the estimation of physical activity

intensity (Freedson et al., 1998). However, the accurate

conversion from activity counts to METs is dependent on the

type of activity performed (Hendelman et al., 2000).

Unidimensional accelerometers do not accurately capture

upper body movements, load carriage, or terrain changes

such as grade. Though the activity count to MET conversions

were developed in the laboratory rather than free living

conditions (Nichols et al., 2000) they do provide accurate

assessments of activity patterns and conservative estimations

of activity intensity that can be used for surveillance of

physical activity, validating self-report measures of physical

activity, and measuring changes in physical activity behavior

during interventions. 

Data are available from one large study using the CSA

accelerometer (Trost et al., 2002). The researchers monitored

the physical activities of approximately 400 school-aged

children (grades 1-12) for seven consecutive days. Because

the accelerometer allows estimates of activity intensity it was

possible to estimate the minutes of involvement in a

combination of moderate to vigorous physical activity

(MVPA). As illustrated in Figure 9, MVPA decreased as

grade level increased. At every grade level males

accumulated more activity than females. This was

particularly true of vigorous activity (not illustrated in Figure

9). The curve in Figure 9 looks quite similar to Rowland’s

curve in Figure 1, perhaps because they both depict activity

assessments that include the dimension of frequency,

intensity and duration.

Figure 9.

Mean minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity

(MVPA) of children and adolescents. 

Based on data from Trost et al., 2002.

Current Physical Activity Guidelines

for Youth

Physical Activity Guidelines for Adolescents

Prior to the 1990s, adult standards were often used to

determine if youth activity levels were adequate. For adults

there are multiple guidelines including those for health

(USDHHS, 1996), vigorous physical activity, muscle fitness,

and flexibility (ACSM, 2000), and for weight loss (IOM,

2002). For more information concerning these

recommendations, see Corbin, Le Masurier and Franks (2002). 

In 1993 Corbin, Pangrazi, & Welk proposed the development

of guidelines specifically for youth, particularly children. In

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1994, an international consensus conference developed

physical activity guidelines (Sallis et al., 1994) specifically

for adolescents (see Table 2). The consensus panel

recommended moderate activity in amounts similar to those

outlined for adults in the Surgeon General’s report

(USDHHS, 1996). These guidelines also called for three

days of vigorous activity per week consistent with American

College of Sports Medicine guidelines for adults (ACSM,

2000). Thus, the recommendations for adolescents included

amounts of both moderate and vigorous physical activity.

The YRBSS questions relating to moderate and vigorous

activity are based on these guidelines.

Physical Activity Guidelines for Children

In 1998, physical activity guidelines for children (ages 5-12)

were developed by both the National Association for Sport 

Table 2.

Physical Activity Guidelines for Adolescents

1. All adolescents should be physically active daily, or 

nearly every day, for at least 30 minutes as part of play,

games, sports, work, transportation, recreation, physical 

education, or planned exercise, in the context of family,

school, and community activities.

2. Adolescents should engage in three or more sessions per 

week of activities that last 20 minutes or more and that 

require moderate to vigorous levels of exertion.

From Sallis et al., 1994.

and Physical Education (NASPE, 1998) and the Health

Education Authority (1998) in the United Kingdom. In 2004

the NASPE physical activity guidelines for children

(NASPE, 2004) were revised (see Table 3). A complete

description of the guidelines, suggestions for

implementation, the rationale for guideline development, and

references are available in the NASPE (2004) document. 

The recent NASPE guidelines for children (see Table 3) are

more general in nature than guidelines for adolescents and

adults. The guidelines indicate that children should do

moderate to vigorous physical activity for at least 60 minutes

and up to several hours a day. Consistent with developmental

needs the activity expected for children is characterized as

intermittent rather than continuous in nature (Bailey et al.,

1995). It is not expected that children will perform non-stop

continuous activity but they will alternate bursts of moderate

to vigorous activity with frequent short rest periods. Because

most children are unlikely to participate in highly specialized

training, multiple recommendations are not made for

children. Rather than recommending separate guidelines for

each type of activity (e.g., moderate, vigorous, strength) the

children’s guidelines are general in nature calling for

participation in a wide variety of activities from the physical

activity pyramid (see NASPE, 2004). Accordingly, the 60-

minute standard is a minimum and for children to achieve the

multiple benefits requires physical activity exceeding this

minimum; thus the stated need for up to several hours of

activity per day. Further, the guidelines call for several daily

bouts of activity of 15 minutes or more. Research among

adults suggests that several 10-minute bouts of moderate

activity can be accumulated to meet moderate activity

requirement for achieving good health (Murphy et al., 2002).

Based on patterns of activity for youth, it is apparent that

without bouts of activity such as physical education, recess

or sports, children are unlikely to meet activity guidelines.

Further, the guidelines note that long periods of inactivity are

discouraged. This guideline supports the Healthy People

2010 goal of achieving more physical education in schools

since long school days without activity lead to long periods

of inactivity.

Table 3.

Physical Activity Guidelines for Children 5-12 

1. Children should accumulate at least 60 minutes, and up 

to several hours, of age-appropriate physical activity on 

most if not all days of the week. This daily accumulation 

should include moderate and vigorous physical activity 

with the majority of the time being spent in activity that 

is intermittent in nature.

2. Children should participate in several bouts of physical 

activity lasting 15 minutes or more each day.

3. Children should participate each day in a variety of ageappropriate physical activities designed to achieve 

optimal health, wellness, fitness, and performance 

benefits.

4. Extended periods of inactivity (periods of two or more 

hours) are discouraged for children, especially during the

daytime hours.

From NASPE, 2004, see references.

Other Physical Activity Standards for Youth

Although not an official guidelines statement, the activity

requirements for awards in the President’s Challenge, a

program of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and

Sports, constitute a set of standards for youth (and adults) to

achieve (PCPFS, 2003). To receive the President’s Active

Lifestyle Award (PALA) youth (ages 6-17) must participate

in 60 minutes of physical activity a day for at least 5 days per

week, for a total of 6 weeks. This is consistent with the

minimum 60-minute standard for children. 

The program also allows youth to achieve the award by

accumulating at least 13,000 (males) or 11,000 (females)

steps/day for six consecutive weeks (PCPFS, 2003). These

initial pedometer guidelines were established using the mean

steps/day data from available research (Vincent & Pangrazi,

2002). A co-creator of the guidelines acknowledged

(Pangrazi, personal communication, March 25, 2004) that

these guidelines are based on limited data and will require

revising as more data are generated. 

A recent study by Tudor-Locke et al., (in press) used an

empirical approach to establishing steps/day guidelines for

elementary school children related to body mass index

(BMI). These BMI-referenced standards suggest that females

accumulate >12,000 steps/day and males accumulate

>15,000 steps/day if the goal is maintenance of a healthy

BMI. Children who failed to meet these standards were more

likely to be classified as having a high BMI compared with

those below these standards. These standards require more

steps (males 3,000 steps/day and females 1,000 steps/day)

than are required to meet the PALA standards. Because the

5
activity levels decline as children move into adolescence.

These studies demonstrate that physical inactivity tracks

over time. That is, children who are inactive tend to remain

inactive as they grow older. This finding supports the views

of others including Malina (1999) and Corbin (2001), who

posits that public health professionals must work to

“untrack” sedentary living among children and youth.

Inactivity tracks much better than activity so identifying

inactive youth early and getting them “untracked” should be

a priority for teachers, researchers and policy makers.

Summary

The type of physical activity assessment and the type of

activity studied are important to the way we characterize

activity patterns of youth. Regardless of the type of

assessment and the type of activity studied, at all ages and

grade levels males are more active than females. The

magnitude of the difference is much more apparent for

questionnaire data among teens. Also the data show that

younger children are more active than teens. There is little

variation in activity among grades in elementary school

when pedometers were used but differences in activity

among grades at the elementary level are apparent when

other measures are used. 

It is clear that young children are more likely to meet activity

guidelines than adolescents. Though many adolescents meet

the vigorous activity standard, many fewer meet the

moderate standard. Questionnaire data indicate that as many

as 20 to 50% of teens get insufficient physical activity and 6

to 12% do not perform any moderate or vigorous activity.

While the proportion of inactive adolescents is lower than the

proportion of adults who are sedentary, the fact that

inactivity “tracks” into adulthood suggests a need to

“untrack” or target sedentary youth early in life. 

The documented decrease in school physical education,

especially in secondary schools, is problematic inasmuch as

it is during adolescence that activity patterns decline most

dramatically. It would seem that the Healthy People 2010

(Spain & Franks, 2001) goal of increasing physical education

in schools should be a high national priority, especially if we

are to accommodate the need for multiple bouts of activity

each day and to help youth avoid long periods of inactivity.

If physical activity guidelines for youth are to be met it is

important for all people interested in promoting physical

activity (including teachers, coaches, parents, and others who

work with children) to be aware of the unique guidelines for

children (NASPE, 2004) and adolescents (Sallis et al., 1994)

and take steps necessary to encourage youth to meet these

guidelines.

Finally, national longitudinal studies that assess physical

activity patterns of youth using a variety of assessment

techniques are necessary. The use of objective, as well as

subjective, techniques seems warranted, especially with

young children. It is only through such long-term studies that

we will be able to accurately determine changes in patterns

over time and accurately determine if youth meet activity

guidelines on a regular basis.

6

authors used secondary pedometer data from American,

Australian, and Swedish children, these guidelines may be

high for American children. Studies on Australian and

European children found that these children accumulate

more steps/day than their American counterparts (Vincent et

al., 2003). These standards are preliminary and need to be

cross-validated and evaluated. No similar standards are

currently available for adolescents. 

Do Most American Youth Meet Physical

Activity Guidelines?

The perception of the activity levels of American youth

depends, to a great extent, on how physical activity is

assessed. Using questionnaire techniques it is apparent that

most children are involved in free-time activity and more

than a third are involved in organized sport (YMCLS). The

nature of the questionnaire does not allow an assessment of

the extent to which children meet the current NASPE (2004)

activity standards. Accelerometer data (Trost et al., 2002)

that take intensity of activity into account indicate that, on

average, young children exceed the minimum activity

standard of 60 minutes of accumulated MVPA per day.

Furthermore, the data indicate that most children participate

in several bouts of MVPA lasting 15 minutes or more each

day. However, these data are not from a national sample and

are only indicative of the participants in one study. It would

be premature, based on the evidence, to draw conclusions

about children and activity guidelines based on these limited

data.

More data are available for teens than for children. YRBSS

questionnaire data indicate that except for grade 12 girls,

most teens meet the adolescent guidelines for vigorous

physical activity. It is doubtful, however, that the Healthy

People 2010 goal of increasing the proportion of teens

meeting this standard to 85% will be met based on decreases

in physical education in schools and the lower amounts of

activity reported by older teens compared to younger teens.

The rates of involvement in muscle fitness activity are above

40% on average and as high as 70% but there is no current

adolescent guideline for this type of activity. Fewer

adolescents meet the moderate standard than meet the

vigorous standard as assessed by questionnaire methods.

Accelerometer data (Trost et al., 2002) indicate that many

males and females in grades 7-12 fail to meet adolescent

guidelines. Similarly, Riddoch et al., (2004) found that a

majority of European children are active 60 minutes a day

but many fewer adolescents meet both moderate and

vigorous activity standards outlined by the international

consensus conference (Sallis et al., 1994).

Of particular concern is the fact that as many as 20 to 50% of

adolescents (YRBSS data) get insufficient activity and 6 to

12% get no moderate or vigorous activity. This indicates that

many teens are not meeting the adolescent guidelines and

supports Rowland’s contention that adolescence is a “risk

factor” for adult sedentary living (Rowland, 1999).

Regardless of how physical activity data are collected on

youth, the majority of existing data are cross-sectional. The

few longitudinal studies that do exist (Janz et al., 2000;

Kimm et al., 2000; Pate et al., 1999) indicated that physical
7

Please Post

President’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports

200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20201

(202) 690-9000 • FAX (202) 690-5211

Children should accumulate

60 minutes and up to several hours of

physical activity each day and teens

should do at least 20 minutes of vigorous

activity 3 days a week and 30 minutes of

moderate activity 5 days a week. Youth

who are inactive as children and teens

are more likely to grow up to be

sedentary adults than youth who are

active. Being active early in life is

important to your health, fitness and

wellness.

Charles B. Corbin

Robert P. Pangrazi

Arizona State University

Guy C. Le Masurier

Pennsylvania State University
8

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