Teens picking sport over computer games: School Stickers

103219-00It’s the new year and we’ve all heard the “new year, new me” motto going around. Getting fit and eating better are resolutions on most people’s lists.

Fortunately, our latest survey results show that despite the concerning decline of sport played in schools, teenagers are still managing to keep active.

We surveyed 1,310 secondary school pupils and asked how many hours of sport a week they get to participate in at school. We found that almost half (49%) do less than two hours of sport at school each week and 18% do less than one hour.

Extracurricular activities on the increase?

Despite the worrying lack of sport within schools, our survey revealed that a large proportion of secondary school pupils spend time participating in sporting activities outside of school.

  • 85% participate in sport outside of school for at least one hour a week
  • 65% do more than two hours a week
  • More than a quarter (30%) say they do more than 4 hours of exercise outside of school every week

Many pupils also have other active hobbies outside of school such as dance (42%), theatre (35%) and scouts, guides and cadet type activity (22%).

Computers v. Sport

We all know computer games are a big favourite of secondary school kids. In fact, we found three quarters (72%) of kids say they enjoy playing computer games.

However only 26% admit to playing for more than 2 hours a week and 67% say they’d rather spend time playing a sport than computer games.

In comparison to these figures, a small 7% claim they use their computer for more than 4 hours a day for non school related reasons.

Neil Hodges, School Stickers Managing Director shares his take on the latest research:

There’s a lot of talk about the lack of exercise that young people get, but increased pressure on school timetables means it is difficult for schools to offer the recommended daily amount. It’s great to hear that not only are young people doing exercise outside of school, the majority would rather do this than play computer games.”

 

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