HE may be smarter, taller, better fed, and have straighter, whiter teeth, but today's average 12-year-old boy is not as healthy as his 1962 counterpart.

So what happened to our children? Back pain, anxiety, depression, obesity, mood swings and diabetes are front and centre of the close-up snapshot of many Queensland boys in 2012.

Junk food, sugar-laden drinks, technology overload, heavy school bags, a lack of sleep and a lack of outdoor activity have all played a part.

Kids Sense paediatric development expert Joanna Buttfield said technology had had a huge impact on the development of boys. "There is less inclination to spend time playing and being active," she said. "The impact of technology has segmented society. Those who are less physical have decreased their abilities and there is a bigger gap between them and the active young boys."

She said that fitness in boys of 2012 compared with 50 years ago was "damning".

"Contributing factors are busy schedules and the priorities placed on academics," she said.

New Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that in 2011 both parents had jobs in 21 per cent of couple family households. Today's parents and children are busier.

Professor Clare Collins, spokeswoman for the Dietitians Association of Queensland, said: "In the 1960s there was a lot more time spent at home preparing food. The boys would have been sent down to the shop to get the meat and the veg and would have been helping prepare the meal.

"Today we have a greater diversity of healthy food, but an even higher diversity of processed and fast food."

New figures show that one in five Queensland children are overweight and another one in 10 are obese.

Almost 200,000 are overweight or obese, according to The Health of Queenslanders 2012: Advancing good health report.

Changing times are also playing havoc with the emotional and social skills of boys in this age bracket.

Forty per cent are lacking these life skills, according to a new study of 11,000 primary and secondary children carried out by the University of Melbourne's Professor Michael Bernard.

The study states that symptoms of poor social and emotional skills include low self-esteem, stress, anxiety, feelings of loneliness, anger, anti-social behaviour and under-achievement at school.

"We are much better aware of issues in children these days and while that is a great advance in the last 50 years, we have to do more than just recognise a problem," Brisbane clinical psychologist Judith Locke said. "We have to be able to teach them ways to better cope with challenging emotions and situations."

Diabetes Australia is concerned for the future of this age group and has warned that if diabetes continues to rise at current rates, up to three million Australians over the age of 25 years will have diabetes by 2025.

The advancement in dental services and products is in a head-to-head battle against the increased demand for sugary drinks. One in four Australian children consume one soft drink per day, a treat that was only enjoyed occasionally 50 years ago.

But according to the Child Dental Health Survey Australia 2007: 30-year Trends in Child Oral Health the number of cavities has declined in the permanent teeth of children aged 12. On average, they had less than one tooth affected while children aged 15 had just over two.

Cameron Prout, chief executive officer of the Heart Foundation in Queensland, warned that children face problems with cholesterol and heart disease later in life if they started bad habits early.

"National guidelines suggest children should be physically active one hour per day and be limited to two hours' screen time," he said.

It is not only waistlines that are growing. Feet too are sprouting with the average 12-year-old wearing a size 10 shoe.

"Twenty years ago, boys of that age would typically wear size eight or nine," podiatrist Brenden Brown said. "But I suppose as children are getting taller it is only natural their feet will get bigger. Today's children usually get a few pairs of shoes per year, but decades ago it was typical to have the same shoes for years or get hand-me-downs that didn't fit properly."

Today's children are on average 15cm taller due to eating more.

Australian boys are hitting puberty earlier than their 1960s counterparts. Today a boy, on average, hits puberty at 10 years and one month, while in 1962 it was at 11 years and six months.

Weight increase is one theory, but Danish researchers have pinpointed higher exposure to chemicals in food and drinks. Another British research team concluded that children experiencing the stresses of a broken home can experience early puberty.

The "lights out" night time routine of families in the '60s has been replaced with many children setting their own routine and nearly two-thirds of children between seven and 14 having a television in their bedrooms. Back pain, shoulder problems and neck aches can also plague today's 12-year-olds as they carry an abundance of books, computers and sporting equipment.

The Chiropractic Association Queensland said children were experiencing more back pain as they aged, with 12 per cent of 11- year-olds and 50 per cent of 15- year-olds experiencing back pain.

jackie.sinnerton@news.com.au

Originally published as Deadly price of progress