Physical Activity, Safety and Violence Among High School Students, 2023

Physical activity helps prevent chronic disease, improves physical and mental health, and sharpens thinking. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans ask 6- to 17-year-olds for 60 minutes or more of mostly aerobic, moderate-to-vigorous activity every day (the aerobic guideline) and muscle-strengthening activity on at least 3 days a week (the muscle-strengthening guideline). Schools are well placed to help, but feeling unsafe may shape whether students are active at all.

This CDC report used the 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey — 20,103 students in grades 9–12 at public and private schools across the 50 states and D.C. — to update national estimates of six physical activity behaviors, and to examine, for the first time with national data in more than a decade, how they relate to five experiences of violence and bullying.

How active are students?

More than 80% of students don't meet both guidelines. Male, heterosexual and White students were more likely to meet them. Activity generally declined by grade: 26.9% of 9th graders met the aerobic guideline, compared with 21.0% of 12th graders, and PE on all 5 days dropped from 39.5% in 9th grade to 17.1% in 12th. Lesbian, gay or bisexual students (12.7%) and students who were questioning or described their identity another way (12.7%) met the aerobic guideline far less often than heterosexual students (28.8%).

Safety and violence

The five experiences studied were:

• skipping school because of feeling unsafe at school or on the way;
• being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property;
• having seen someone attacked, beaten, stabbed or shot in the neighborhood;
• being bullied at school;
• being bullied electronically.

Students who skipped school because they felt unsafe were less likely to meet the aerobic guideline. The picture was mixed — and several experiences went with more activity, not less:

After adjusting for grade, race and ethnicity, and sexual identity:

• Female students threatened or injured with a weapon at school were more likely to meet the aerobic and muscle-strengthening guidelines and to play on a sports team. Being bullied at school went with meeting the aerobic guideline and both guidelines — among female students, but not male students.
• Male students threatened or injured with a weapon at school were more likely to meet the muscle-strengthening guideline and play on a team, and those who had witnessed neighborhood violence were more likely to meet the aerobic guideline and the muscle-strengthening guideline.
• PE attendance went the other way. Female students who had witnessed neighborhood violence, and male students bullied electronically, were less likely to attend PE on all 5 days.

What might explain it

Physical activity is known to protect young people's well-being: daily activity, daily PE and team sports are all linked to feeling close to people at school, and activity supports self-esteem, relationships and grades. Students who feel unsafe may use exercise to cope with stress and anxiety. An analysis of 2019 survey data found that girls who had experienced sexual violence did muscle-strengthening exercise more often — possibly to protect themselves, or as a positive outlet.

But the data are cross-sectional, so cause and effect can't be separated. Students may seek out activity because of what happened to them — or they may meet violence through activity itself, in unsafe spaces, hazing or rivalries. Locker rooms, for example, have been identified as places in schools linked to violence and bullying, especially for girls. PE, which depends on school policy rather than student choice, may relate to these experiences differently.

Limitations

• The questions covered different time frames — the past 7 days, 30 days or 12 months — which could affect the relationships found.
• Students' socioeconomic status, which affects their opportunities to be active, wasn't available.

What schools can do

The authors suggest that PE teachers, coaches, athletic directors and counselors consider these experiences — for instance, using PE classes, teams and other activity spaces to talk about constructive ways to handle the stress of feeling unsafe. Because students who had been threatened at school played on sports teams more often, making sports a healthy, safe outlet matters, as schools and communities work toward the Healthy People 2030 objective of more young people playing on teams or taking sports lessons. Safe physical spaces help both to promote activity and to prevent violence.

Sources

Based on Cornett K, Michael SL, Sliwa S, Chen TJ, Kissler CJ, McKinnon II, Krause KH, "Physical Activity Behaviors and Negative Safety and Violence Experiences Among High School Students — Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2023," MMWR Supplements 73(4), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain. Original report.