Using shanghai municipal data to examine whether student sacrifice exercise in response to academic pressure

The competitive education environment in Mainland China pressure many students to take up after-school lessons, cutting into their leisure time and exercise less, setting a path towards a more sedentary lifestyle. We use a survey on sports consumption for Shanghainese adolescent ages 6 to 17 to examine whether they sacrifice sports activity as they advance through the grade. We found that students a year older exercise 16.2 fewer minutes per week, 1.38 percent less likely to spend on sports training, 1.42 percent more likely to watch sports events, 1.90 percent more likely to buy more sports related goods. Our result shows that students substitute sports activities with more expenditure on sports products and events. When older adolescent exercise less, we are concerned that it may contribute to rising obesity and a more sedentary lifestyle.