During childhood and adolescence, regular physi- cal activity (PA) is associated with improvements in physiological and psychological health and is being promote as an objective for disease prevention (Cav- ill N et al., 2001; Harsha DW., 1995). Nerveless, a substantial proportion of young people have lower PA levels than recommended for good health (Trost SG at al., 2002). Furthermore, PA levels decline from childhood to adolescence, and in the same time TV viewing and unhealthy lifestyle increases with the same speed. As we know the school environment is an ideal setting for promotion of PA, science all chil- dren can be reached. Schools can provide opportunities to be physically active during physical education, during recess, and before and after school hours (Jago R et al., 2004). One intervention studies focused on school break periods and promoting PA at school and reported an increase in children`s activity levels during those periods (Wechsler H et al., 2000). Previous studies (Ridgers ND et al., 2005; Wickel EF et al., 2007), have showed that the majority of time during school recess and PE lessons is spent at lower intensities of PA, and the amount of time spent in moderate – to – vigorous PA (MVPA) is insufficient in relation to the recommended amount of 60 daily minutes in MVPA. Unstructured outdoor play (Anderson SE et al., 2008; Cleland V et al., 2008) participation in organized sports, (Spinks A et al., 2006) and mode of transpor- tation to school (Saksvig BI et al., 2007; Tudor-Locke C et al., 2002) have all been suggested correlates of PA levels in children and are thus possible targets for PA interventions. Conversely, time watching TV dur- ing leisure time represents a behavior often used as a measure of sedentary time. TV viewing has been shown to be positively related to overweight in youth (Andersen LF et al., 2005; Gortmaker SI et al., 1996; Marshall SJ et al., 2004) and reducing sedentary be- havior by limiting screen time to no more than two hours per day has been recommended (AAP., 2001).
In a study about Diet, physical activity, sedentary behaviour and perceptions of the environment in young adults from (A. A. Lake,* T. Townshend, S. Alvanides, E. Stamp§ & A. J. Adamson*), on seden- tary behavior. A study of (C Graf1 et al., B Koch1), according to leisure activities and television view- ing behavior showed that 57.17% of the children re- ported that they watched television daily (n¼307), 21.97% reported to do so 4–6 days/ week (n¼118) and 20.86%, 1–3 days/week (n¼112). The children with the least viewing time per week tended to show the best results with regard to their gross motor de- velopment.
No differences were found between the groups con- cerning BMI and endurance performance (C Graf1 et al., B Koch1). Also a study from (Motl et al., 2005) shows that adolescents spend approximately 3 h day) watching television or playing video games. The aim of this study is to investigate TV viewing during leisure time on a large sample of 6 to 9 grade elementary children, respectively 11 to 15 year-old children in Tirana.