With the warm weather and extra free time away from the classroom, you might assume that kids spend a lot more time running around outdoors over summer vacation. But that assumption would be wrong.
When school's out, kids are actually more likely to engage in obesity-related behaviors such as watching more television, consuming more sugar and eating fewer vegetables, and their exercise levels barely budge, according to a study from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. The findings are published online in the Journal of School Health.
With one in 6 American children obese, and millions more overweight, those bad habits become a cause for serious concern.
The researchers analyzed data on over 6,400 U.S. children and adolescents in grades one through 12 who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2003 and 2008. Some were surveyed during the school year and others during a school break.
The study authors focused on three dietary factors -- total calories consumed per day, number of cups of vegetables eaten, and teaspoons of added sugar consumed -- as well as exercise patterns and time spent in front of a screen. They also looked at socio-economic status, comparing households above and below 185 percent of the poverty line, the eligibility criteria for receiving free or reduced-price school lunches.
"There is a body of research showing that all kids learn while in school, but kids continue to learn during the summer break if they are in more resourceful families," study author Dr. Y. Claire Wang, co-director of the Mailman School's Obesity Prevention Initiative, told CBS News. "We wanted to answer a similar question of whether summer does that to low-income kids in terms of healthy lifestyle."
But the results found that income level had little impact on obesity behaviors among children on summer break. "Turns out we didn't see the same effect as the academic achievement literature - all the kids are pretty similar when they are out of schools," Wang said.
Overall, students of all grade and income levels did not meet government recommended guidelines for vegetable intake, consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, exercise, and amount of time spent in front of a screen.