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The context of their study is partly the researchers' following concern:
Over the past 25 years, there has been an alarming and exponential increase in childhood obesity ..., increasing from 5% to 17% since 1980 ... This is cause for great concern because an estimated 77% of obese children remain obese throughout their adult life ... In addition,
obesity during childhood can be a significant risk factor for adult morbidity and mortality ..." (p.44)
And while the homeschooling population has grown tremendously over the past 30 years, objective measures of physical activity levels in homeschool children have been understudied.
The study sample included a total of 113 children aged 7-11 years and 76 parents; this included 68 homeschool children (HSC) and 45 public school children (PSC). Body composition was assessed for all subjects using total body dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry scans. Physical activity was measured by the subjects wearing a medical grade activity monitor for seven consecutive days. Data on nutrition was gathered by having subjects "... record all dietary intake for seven consecutive days (concurrently while wearing the activity monitor) using a provided food journal. This included all types and amounts of food and drink consumed" (p. 47). In addition, the children and parents were asked to complete questionnaires.
While presenting the findings, Dr. Long and his colleagues caution the reader that "... numerous factors may keep these findings from becoming generalizable [to all homeschool or public school students] as our sample was still relatively small, some families had multiple children participate, few public schools were represented by the PSC, and most of the children in the study had a BMI for age and sex categorized as healthy weight and had favorable body composition measures" (p. 53). With that in mind, what did they find?
They found that "... PSC had significantly higher step counts, time spent in MVPA [moderate to vigorous physical activity] on the weekdays, and in total over a period of one week than did matched HSC" (p. 53). Regarding nutrition, they wrote that "... in the current study, we did not find any differences in total kilocalories, carbohydrate, fat, protein, saturated fat, cholesterol, or sugars in our comparison of HSC and PSC" (p. 54-55).
Although the researchers gave several appropriate cautions about the limitations of their study's design, they offered some thoughtful comments on the possible reasons for what they found. "The lower weekday physical activity levels of HSC, without differences in weekend activity levels, may suggest that the lack of scheduled physical education classes, recess, or after school physical activity programs in home school curricula play a role in lower activity levels" (p. 53).
Long and his colleagues theorized that the similarity in household income, education levels, and attitudes and beliefs about physical activity and nutrition of parents of the HSC and PSC might explain the similarity in nutrition practices. One difference related to nutrition was "...that HSC participated more frequently [than PSC] in meal preparation practices with their parents" (p. 55).
This fascinating study is one of the first and very few on the nutrition and physical activity of homeschool students. If public school students are more obese and less physically active than they should be (in general) and there is little difference between their nutrition and physical activity and that of homeschool children, then homeschool parents ought to pay close attention and consider what they should be changing around their families, with their children and with themselves.
--Brian D. Ray, Ph.D.
National Home Education Research Institute
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Endnotes:
[i]
See the special issue of a journal represented by this article: Ray, Brian D. (2013). Homeschooling rising into the twenty-first century: Editor's introduction. Peabody Journal of Education, 88(3), 261-264; this journal's special issue is available by clicking here.
[ii] NHERI reported on the following study
circa November 29, 2013: Cardel, Michelle; Willig, Amanda L.; Dulin-Keita, Akilah; Casazza, Krista; Cherrington, Andrea; Gunnarsdottir, Thrudur; Johnson, Susan L.; Peters, John C.; Hill, James O. Hill; Allison, David B. Allison; Fernández, José R. (2013). Home-schooled children are thinner, leaner, and report better diets relative to traditionally schooled children. Obesity: A Research Journal, 21.
[iii]
Long Douglas E.; Gaetke Lisa M.; Perry Stephen D.; Abel, Mark G.; & Clasey Jody L. (2010). The assessment of physical activity and nutrition in home schooled versus public schooled children. Pediatric Exercise Science, 22, 44-69.
