Children's Activity Levels Strongly Influenced By Who They Are Friends With

And you heard it here, first, years ago.

Children whose friends are physically active are much more likely to be physically active themselves, researchers from Vanderbilt University reported in the journal Pediatrics. The authors explained that several previous studies had focused on obesity and social networking in adolescents and adults, but never on younger children.

Sabina B. Gesell, PhD. and team found that friendship bonds play a vital role in setting physical activity trends in children aged between 5 and 12 years.

The researchers gathered data from three waves of files on school-age children who participated in aftercare, 40% of them were African-American, 39% Caucasian, and 19% Latino. They studied information on a total of 81 children.

All the kids had taken part in a 12-week afterschool program to determine whether a child's friendship network might impact on their physical activity patterns.

The researchers used accelerometers to measure physical activity, as well as a survey to identify each child's social network.

They found that a child is six times as likely to adjust to their peers' activity levels than not.

Do not let your kids have fat friends.