Unfortunately, our young people live in a social and physical environment that makes it easy to be
sedentary and inconvenient to be active. Social and environmental factors that discourage physical
activity include: community design centered around automobiles, limited access to low or no cost
physical activity close to home (such as parks, recreation centers, and walking and biking paths); new
technology that is sedentary in nature; and increased concerns about safety in neighborhoods. The
results are startling. Fewer than one in five high school students meet the current recommendations of
60 minutes of daily physical activity,254 and a recent study showed that adolescents now spend more than
seven hours per day watching television, DVDs, movies, or using a computer or a mobile device like a cell
phone or MP3 player.
255 Older adolescents are less likely than younger children to be physically active,
and adolescent girls are less likely to be physically active than their male peers.
256 African-American and
Hispanic adolescent girls are the least likely to be physically active.