PDHPE yearly task

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Adolescents are renowned for their poor-diets and excessive device-usage, which seem to
almost be part of their identities. Despite this, imbalanced-diets, as well as increased levels
of screen-time can be catastrophic for growing teenagers, and will negatively impact their
physical health, cognitive function and social and emotional wellbeings.

Increased levels of screen-time can harm adolescent cognition in many ways. Adolescents
with higher screen-times tend to be less attentive and logical, as well as more forgetful. After
just 75 minutes of screen-time, the University of Queensland discovered a decline in
adolescent cognitive-abilities. Also, some teenagers showed as much as a 15% decrease in
memory skills after surpassing the recommended screen-time limit. Moreover, if adolescents

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regularly devote considerable amounts of time to screen-use, they will be in danger of
addiction, as the amounts of dopamine they create during device-usage makes it hard to
stop.

● After just 75 minutes of screen-time, the University of Queensland discovered a

decline in adolescent cognitive-abilities. Also, some teenagers showed as much as a
15% decrease in memory skills after surpassing the recommended screen-time limit
● Addiction due to dopamine
● Screen time is sedentary
● According to the Royal Children’s Hospital, adolescents dedicate an average 4½
hours to screen-time daily.
●

Screen-time also affects adolescents physically. Screen-use is a sedentary-activity, performed

sitting. According to the Royal Children’s Hospital, adolescents dedicate an average 4½
hours to screen-time daily. Spending long-times in sedentary-positions is associated with
poor physical health, and increases the risk of muscle strain and cramping. Sitting for longer
than 4 hours a day can also increase the risk of developing a fatal heart-condition by 64%,
showing how dangerous too much screen-time can become.

Similarly, excessive screen-usage negatively impacts individuals’ social-wellbeings. Screen-

time means that adolescents aren’t interacting with their families or friends face-to-face and
can instead isolate themselves from others. Higher screen-times can make Australian
teenagers 44% more likely to feel lonely, and can also cause distress and an increased risk of
depressive-symptoms, meaning adolescents are affected emotionally as well.

Imbalanced-diets are generally characterised by either being too-high in processed, sugary

and high-calorie foods, or by not containing enough energy for ideal functioning. Both of
these diets have clear detrimental effects on adolescents.

Imbalanced-diets are very detrimental to adolescents’ physical health. Consuming too many
high-calorie foods with low-nutritional value puts adolescents at risk of developing chronic
conditions such as type-2 diabetes and obesity. In Australia, 40% of cardiovascular diseases,
as well as 34% of endocrine disorders are attributable to poor-diets. Moreover, diets that
don’t provide enough energy to sustain adolescents can result in up to a 20% reduction in

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skeletal muscle-mass, as well as increased dizziness, fatigue and disease due to a weakened
immune-system.

Imbalanced diets also negatively affect adolescents cognitively. The University of WA found
that adolescents with diets characterized by high-intakes of processed and refined
carbohydrates could have a reaction-time up to 14.9% slower than those who met the dietary-
guidelines. They also had a reduction in memory-recall skills by up to 57%. As a result of the
impacts on cognition, it is clear that imbalanced diets are harmful to adolescents.

Additionally, imbalanced diets have terrible emotional effects on adolescents. According to

the AIHW, over-consuming unhealthy-foods significantly increases instances of irritability,
mood-fluctuations and negative emotions in adolescents. An unnamed teenager from a
study, who’s diet didn’t meet the dietary-guidelines for their age said they regularly felt
“miserable”, "unhappy", and "tired". That study also found adolescents with poor diets were
almost 50% more likely to show depressive-symptoms than healthy-eaters. Considering this,
it is important that adolescents eat healthy to preserve their emotional-health.

Too much screen-time and a poor diet can have terrible effects on various parts of an
adolescents' health, which is why it’s important that screens are used in moderation, and
that diets are healthy.

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● Bad for cognition: Cognitive changes: Depression, anxiety, irritability,

increased mood fluctuations, intense and negative emotional reactions,
decreased enthusiasm, reduced motivation, impaired concentration, problem

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 solving and comprehension, increased rigidity, obsessional thinking and
reduced alertness. (2)
● In 2015, 7.3% of the total burden of disease in Australia was due to poor diet
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/food-nutrition/poor-diet/contents/dietary-
guidelines
● A healthy diet helps to prevent and manage health risk factors such as
overweight and obesity, high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol, as
well as associated chronic conditions, including type 2 diabetes,
cardiovascular disease and some forms of cancer (NHMRC 2013).
● More than 40% of cardiovascular disease burden and 34% of endocrine disease
burden was attributable to dietary risks.
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/diet

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 ●

https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jcpp.12209
●

Screen time - 200

● 80% of 16 year olds exceeded the recommended < 2 hours per day
https://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?
start=10&q=social+impact+adolescent+device+australia&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&as_vis=1#d=gs_qa
bs&u=%23p%3DDK26xtHnRwYJ
● UQ School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences researcher Associate Professor Asad
Khan said the global study investigated data from more than 577,000 adolescents aged 13
to 15 years across 42 high-income countries. “We found there were some benefits during

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 the first hour of daily screen use, but detrimental effects of recreational screen use on
mental wellbeing kick in after 75 minutes in girls and 105 minutes in boys,” Dr Khan
said. “Excess screen time effects can include depression, obesity, poor quality of life,
unhealthy diet and decreased physical and cognitive abilities. (1) (done by university

of QLD)
● Say they started to see negative effects on their emotional well beings after
just 75 minutes

● Screen time is also a sedentary behaviour, which is bad. 4.5 hours por
adolescent according to a poll by the royal children's hospital in melbourne (4)
● Adolescents should limit their sedentary time to less than 2 hours a time to
stay healthy.
●

(1) - https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(21)00200-5/fulltext (no

referencing :(( )
(2) https://nedc.com.au/research-and-resources/show/issue-59-i-the-starved-brain-can-what-we-
eat-determine-how-we-think
(3) https://www.rchpoll.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/ACHP-Poll7_Detailed-Report-
June21.pdf
(4)

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 (5) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140197121000853
(6) https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.healthdirect.gov.au/amp/article/malnutrition
(7) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24302748/

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