Marriage, kids, work: How do they affect physical activity?

Adulthood begins when adolescence ends. Although experts disagree about the actual time of adulthood, we assume that adulthood begins at age 20. Unfortunately, as we get older, our involvement in physical activity or sports begins to decline. In adulthood, three main factors influence movement and have the greatest negative impact on lifestyle: it is the end of school and finding a job, entering  a relationship and getting married and having children.

Marriage

Brown and Trost (2003) studied more than 7,000 young adult women, from late adolescence to their early 20s, to determine the effects of key events on their levels of physical activity. Participants reported their physical activity and life events during their involvement in the research, body mass index and other socio-demographic information. For many of these young women, no change in physical activity levels was found during the 4 years of the study . However, 20% of participants switched from physical activity to inactivity. These participants were very likely to report that they were married, had a child, or started working. Of course, in recent years there has been a tendency to postpone marriage and start a family or having no desire to get married. For many, this tendency will prevent the negative effects on physical activity and motor behavior. However, although there is usually a decrease in physical activity, individuals can continue to engage in it until much later in life. For example, if a moderately active person marries an extremely active person, they will engage in activities. However, this is not the rule. Usually, both partners are forced to reduce their activity levels as they become more and more satisfied with staying at home with each other.

Children

Many people believe that having children increases the overall level of activity of the parents, but this is not the case. Initially, having children can cause fatigue or even exhaustion due to lack of sleep, new responsibilities, and rescheduling of the routine. Children also reduce their parents’ freedom or spontaneity, which has allowed them to engage more regularly in motor activities. Even if the parents were not very active in the past, their lives become more sedentary. We must recognize, however, that having children can have the opposite effect. In particular, it has been found that parents aged 35 to 54 participated in sports such as football because they played with their children.

Work

Finally, for most people, starting working full time also has negative effects on movement. Work usually creates a relatively permanent change in lifestyle, reducing a person’s time for engaging in activities. In addition, the employee usually has few colleagues with similar motor interests. If the employee does not exercise alone or with friends who share similar interests then he/she can reduce or stop physical activity. Source: “Human Motor Development” -A Lifespan approach (Greg Payne, Larry Isaacs) Recent Articles