Research

Recent studies that support the need for programs like Getting Youth Active include:

• Inactivity Among American Youth Outdoor Industry Foundation's overview of youth inactivity and obesity issues with supporting facts and figures from publicly available research.

The Obesity Epidemic

• Childhood Obesity: Most Experts Identified Physical Activity and the Use of Best Practices as Key to Successful Programs, 2005, United States Government Accountability Office
• Prevalence of Overweight Among Children and Adolescents: United States, 1999-2002, Centers for Disease Control
• A Potential Decline in Life Expectancy in the United States in the 21st Century, The New England Journal of Medicine

The Necessity of Physical Activity

• Exercise Seen as Priming Pump for Students' Academic Strides, Education Week
  
• Building "Generation Play": Addressing the Crisis of Inactivity Among America's Children, Stanford School of Medicine
  
• Physical Activity Levels Among Children Aged 9-13 Years, United States 2002, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
• Childhood Obesity: Factors Affecting Physical Activity, U.S. Government Accounatability Office
  
• Diet, Physical Activity, and Sedentary Behaviors as Risk Factors for Overweight in Adolescence, Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine
• Determinants of Adolescent Physical Activity and Inactivity Patterns, Pediatrics: Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics
• Green Exercise: Complementary Roles of Nature, Exercise and Diet in Physical and Emotional Well-Being and Implications for Public Health Policy, University of Essex (British)

Psychological Benefits of Nature

• Nearby Nature: A Buffer of Life Stress Among Rural Children, Environment and Behavior
• At Home with Nature: Effects of "Greenness" on Children's Cognitive Functioning, Environment and Behavior
• Coping with ADD: The Surprising Connection to Green PlaySettings, Environment and Behavior
• Green Exercise: Complementary Roles of Nature, Exercise and Diet in Physical and Emotional Well-Being and Implications for Public Health Policy, University of Essex (British)

Youthful Play Outdoors, Adult Environmentalism

• Nature and the Life Course: Pathways from Childhood Nature Experiences to Adult Environmentalism, Children, Youth and Environments
• Psychological Restoration in Nature as a Positive Motivation for Ecological Behavior, Environment and Behavior

Youth and Nature in Urban Environments

• Coping with Poverty: Impacts of Environment and Attention in the Inner City, Environment and Behavior
• The Fruit of Urban Nature: Vital Neighborhood Spaces, Environment and Behavior
• Aggression and Violence in the Inner City: Effects of Environment via Mental Fatigue, Environment and Behavior
• Environment and Crime in the Inner City: Does Vegetation Reduce Crime, Environment and Behavior
• Views of Nature and Self-Discipline: Evidence from Inner City Children, Journal of Environmental Psychology

General

• America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2005, Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics
• Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System - United States 2003, Centers for Disease Control
• Generation M: Media in the lives of 8-18 Year Olds, A Kaiser Family Foundation Study 2005
• Outdoor Education Really Works!, American Institutes for Research, 2005