March 1, 2019
Staying Active Improves Mental Health
Staying active and exercising is a lifelong behavior that should begin at a young age. Exercising and staying active is shown to improve executive functioning, mental health, and decrease depressive symptoms. Unfortunately many of America’s youth don’t get the appropriate amount of daily exercise. Although there may be barriers in daily exercise, the benefits strongly suggest overcoming those barriers. The following information lays out examples on how to encourage youth to stay active as well as the benefits of this healthy choice.
Ways to Encourage Youth to Stay Active
- Suggest walking instead of driving to nearby locations
- Role model healthy exercise
- Stress the importance of exercise and mental health
- Encourage children to go outside
- Suggest organized sports as well as unstructured play
- Establish routine household chores
Benefits of Staying Active
- Improves body composition and self-esteem
- Improves academic performance
- Increases attention control
- Decreases depressive symptoms
- Reduces the risk of chronic diseases
- Improves mood and behavior
- Improves sleep
YScreen staff helps connect teens and their families to the appropriate community resources that can address these concerns and help them cope with stress by providing suggestions such as daily exercise. YScreen is available to teens in Fond du Lac County. If you would like to request screening for your child or would like more information about YScreen, please contact us at (920) 906-6700 ext. 4714.