COVID-19 Impact on Behaviors across the 24-Hour Day in Children and Adolescents: Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior, and Sleep
Open accessAbstract
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, social restrictions to contain the spread of the virus have disrupted behaviors across the 24-h day including physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep among children (5–12 years old) and adolescents (13–17 years old). Preliminary evidence reports significant decreases in physical activity, increases in sedentary behavior, and disrupted sleep schedules/sleep quality in children and adolescents. This commentary discusses the impact of COVID-19-related restrictions on behaviors across the 24-h day in children and adolescents. Furthermore, we suggest recommendations through the lens of a socio-ecological model to provide strategies for lasting behavior change to insure the health and well-being of children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Sleep disturbance during home-quarantine may be caused by changes in routine, decreased physical activity, absence of social contact with peers, and increased technology consumption.
“Sleep disturbance during home-quarantine may be caused by changes in routine, decreased physical activity, absence of social contact with peers, and increase in technology consumption such as mobile phones and computers [8,9].”
From COVID-19-Related Anxiety Symptoms among Quarantined Adolescents and Its Impact on Sleep Pattern Changes and Somatic Symptoms (2022) · cites this paper as [8]
Section 4 (COVID-19 and Sleep; page unavailable) links disrupted routines, reduced outdoor activity, and increased screen time to changes in sleep or circadian timing during COVID-19 restrictions. Section 5.3 recommends promoting connectedness before sleep, but does not identify absence of contact with peers as a cause of sleep disturbance. The paper’s discussion also concerns children and adolescents, rather than people in home quarantine generally. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe present findings are consistent with previous studies demonstrating significant links between anxiety and sleep disturbance and between anxiety and somatic symptoms.
“Our present findings are consistent with previous studies demonstrating significant links between anxiety and sleep disturbance [8,9,14], and between anxiety and somatic symptoms [28,29].”
From COVID-19-Related Anxiety Symptoms among Quarantined Adolescents and Its Impact on Sleep Pattern Changes and Somatic Symptoms (2022) · cites this paper as [8]
Section 4, “COVID-19 and Sleep” (page unavailable), states that insufficient sleep can result in anxiety or mood swings, supporting a link between sleep and anxiety. The paper does not report a statistically significant association. The somatic-symptoms clause has separate citations in the citing sentence and is not attributed to this source. (LLM, conf=0.81)
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Cites
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Mitigate the effects of home confinement on children during the COVID-19 outbreak
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“For 5–17-year-olds, 9–11 h of uninterrupted sleep are recommended [18,19].”
BackgroundInfluentialMental health effects of school closures during COVID-19
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“The circadian system is largely driven by light exposure during daytime hours [42].”
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“Given the strong associations between physical activity and indicators of good health in children and adolescents [17], it is vital to alter the current emerging “new normal” of severely decreased physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Backgroundfor the ISCOLE Research Group, Roman-Viñas, B., Chaput, J.-P., Katzmarzyk, P. T., Fogelholm, M., Lambert, E. V., Maher, C., Maia, J., Olds, T., Onywera, V., et al. (2016) · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · doi:10.1186/s12966-016-0449-8 · Cited by 368 · cited 3× · see citing works
“Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, less than 10% of school-aged (5–17 years) children/adolescents achieved recommended amounts of physical activity [14].”
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Brailovskaia, J., & Margraf, J. (2024) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-022-03182-z · Cited by 101 · see citing works
Health effects of COVID-19 for vulnerable adolescents in a randomized controlled trial.
Miller, R. L., Moran, M., Shomaker, L. B., Seiter, N., Sanchez, N., Verros, M., Rayburn, S., Johnson, S., & Lucas-Thompson, R. (2021) · School Psychology · doi:10.1037/spq0000458 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Gendler, Y., & Blau, A. (2022) · Children · doi:10.3390/children9050735 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“Our present findings are consistent with previous studies demonstrating significant links between anxiety and sleep disturbance [8,9,14], and between anxiety and somatic symptoms [28,29].”
BackgroundResultInfluential
- Authors
- Bates, L., Zieff, G., Stanford, K., Moore, J., Kerr, Z., Hanson, E., Barone Gibbs, B., Kline, C., & Stoner, L.
- Affiliations
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Wake Forest University Health Sciences (US)
- Department of Health and Human Development, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- University of Pittsburgh (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bates, Lauren
- ORCID
- Venue
- Children
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2020-09-16
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 138
- ISSN
- 2227-9067 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7552759
- OpenAlex
- W3086786819
- Cited by
- 413
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 52 · 2023: 96 · 2022: 119 · 2021: 103 · 2020: 5
- FWCI
- 48.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Children (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- D-Scholarship@Pitt (University of Pittsburgh) (acceptedVersion)
- Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- UNC Libraries
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, physical activity, sedentary behavior, sleep, adolescents, social restrictions, sleep schedule, sleep quality, socio-ecological model, behavior change, child and adolescent health
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