Kaksi lasta kävelee metsässä kauniina syyspäivänä

Donate to physical activity research for children!

Every child deserves a healthy and active life. When you donate to physical activity research for children, you are supporting the well-being of children and young people. You will contribute to improving swimming skills for increased water safety as well as to help tackle the serious challenges related to children’s declining learning outcomes. An active childhood builds a foundation for a healthy life. Your donation today increases children’s well-being and makes a vital investment in our future.

Donate to physical activity research for children

Nuori poika makaa sohvalla hämärässä huoneessa katsellen älypuhelinta. — Physical activity decreases sharply by age. Only 10% of ninth-graders reach the recommended level of physical activity.

Physical activity among children and youth is at an alarmingly low level

Did you know that only a third of Finnish school-aged children are physically active enough? The situation is alarming since it threatens children’s health and well-being. There are many reasons for the decline in physical activity: everyday activity has fallen, children and parents get hooked on the digital world, and the COVID-19 pandemic further decreased physical activity. In recent years, differences between children have also grown wider. Some children are highly active in sport and other physical activities, but for too many children, physical activity remains at a very low level. An especially concerning point is the widening gap between boys and girls: In all age groups, boys are physically more active.

Increased sitting and sedentary time not only threaten the health of children and adolescents, but also have a negative impact on their learning outcomes and mental well-being. Lifestyles adopted in childhood often continue into adulthood and also significantly influence a person’s physical activity later in life. Without urgent action, Finns’ functional capacity – and even ability to work – are at risk of collapse as soon as in the 2030s.

Support the well-being of children and youth

You now have a unique opportunity to join us in improving the health and well-being of children and adolescents. With the only Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences in Finland, the University of Jyväskylä has a strong tradition of research that addresses the challenges of physical activity and explores various means to promote wellbeing among young people. We are launching a new broad-based research programme, and it needs your help.

By donating to physical activity research for children, you support us in developing concrete solutions to increase everyday physical activity among children and youth, as well as to remove related obstacles and keep up the joy of physical activity, from early childhood to adulthood. We work with families, schools and clubs to develop various measures that can help increase physical activity at home, school and in free time. We pay special attention to those who get the least physical activity.

By donating to physical activity research for children, you give them a chance for a healthier life. Our studies have shown that the healthy and active children of today will be the healthy and vital adults of tomorrow. Your donation is an essential investment in the future.

Support the well-being of children and young people – make a donation today.

Give as an individual

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Taaperoikäinen tyttö laskee leikkikentällä liukumäestä alas — A donation to physical activity research is a vital investment in the future.

Practical solutions to serious problems

In addition to supporting broad-based research into physical activity, your donations will help develop solutions to the challenges related to children’s declining swimming skills and learning.

Swimming is a survival skill

Finland is a country of thousands of lakes and other waterways, with nearly 315,000 km of shoreline. In a country such as this, swimming skills are essential. Unfortunately, children’s swimming skills have deteriorated because they could not participate in schools’ swimming instruction during the pandemic and schools have subsequently decreased such instruction due to cost savings. Some children drown because their parents are not aware of their children’s skills to cope in water. Parents often fail to understand that children need constant adult supervision in waterfront environments.

The University of Jyväskylä, in collaboration with the Finnish Swimming Teaching and Lifesaving Federation, is launching a research programme to help decrease drowning deaths and other accidents in water environments.

Research programme activities:

We will conduct a nationwide investigation of the views of guardians about their children’s swimming skills while measuring those same children’s actual skill to move in the water.
We will publish the results on children’s actual swimming skills.
We will collaboratively develop solutions and measures for increasing swimming instruction.

Motion is fuel for learning

During the past decade, the learning outcomes of Finnish children and youth have been declining. Different learning-related problems and a lack of concentration have widely increased. In particular, high levels of sedentary behaviour and lengthy times spent at a screen, along with low levels of physical activity, impair learning.

The University of Jyväskylä is launching a research programme to help develop solutions for increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviour among children and youth.

Research programme activities:

We will support the learning of children and young people by breaking up their long periods of sedentary behaviour and screentime with meaningful moments of physical activity.
We will design targeted programmes to support learning in early childhood education, primary and secondary education as well as in higher education institutions.
We will implement the new knowledge through the network of teacher educators in all teacher training units of Finland.