‘Can You Please Sit Still?!’: Exploring the Dynamics of Children's Sedentary Behaviours at Home

Abstract

Sedentary behaviour among children has become an area of interest in health research due to its associations with unfavourable health outcomes. Concerns about certain activities being sedentary guides much work in this field, with study outcomes often directed towards determining the amount of time spent in these activities. In this paper, we explore the idea of thinking about sedentary moments within children's everyday practices instead of total time spent in sedentary behaviours. Through this approach we examine children's everyday practices to show how activities by themselves should not necessarily be considered sedentary, but as composed of sedentary moments that are performed. We also look at how such sedentary moments are created, and the ways in which they are linked to material arrangements and pervasive understandings about how certain practices should be conducted. These could be seen as instruments of power acting upon the body, shaped by discourses about childhood and family life.