Focus: Physical Health Benefits
These articles examine linkages between the design of children’s environments, children’s outdoor/nature-related behavior and their physical health, including physical activity, development, and functioning. A lot of children’s recreational physical activity takes place outdoors and with friends Dunton and colleagues examined where and with whom children engage in recreational exercise and sports. Researchers analyzed 4 years of data from a large, nationally representative time use survey. As part of this survey, children between the ages of 15 and 18 participated in a telephone interview where they described their activities for a 24-hour period, as well as where and with whom each activity occurred. In analyzing data for over 850 children, Dunton and colleagues found that the majority of children’s recreational physical activity occurred with friends/acquaintances/other (50%), alone (19%), or with family members (18%). In terms of location, researchers found that children’s recreational physical activity occurred at: other/unspecified locations (29%), school (24%), outdoors (22%), home (16%), and at someone else’s house (8%). With regard to gender, Dunton and colleagues discovered that girls were more likely to exercise with family than boys, while boys were more likely to exercise with friends/acquaintances/other and outdoors than girls. With regard to age, researchers found that 18-year-olds were more likely to engage in recreational physical activity alone and less likely to engage in physical activity at school. While this study may be limited by its reliance on selfreported information and the categories researchers used to describe social and environmental contexts, it provides valuable insight into where and with whom children participate in recreational sports and exercise. Based on their study, Dunton and colleagues recommend that program and planning efforts focus on encouraging peer-based and outdoor activities to support children’s recreational physical activity. Author Affiliation: Genevieve Dunton is with the University of Southern California. Country where research was conducted: United States. C&NN Research Volume 5 Dunton, G. F., Berrigan, D., Ballard-Barbash, R., Perna, F. M., Graubard, B. I., & Atienza, A. A. (2010). Adolescents' Sports and Exercise Environments in a US Time Use Survey. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 39(2), 122-129. This review may be available in a library near you or can be purchased online through the publisher at: http://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S07493797%2810%2900318-1/abstract
Child-care centers’ social and physical environments influence children’s physical activity levels With over half of European children attending some form of child-care, it is important to understand how these environments impact children’s physical activity. In this study, Gubbels and colleagues examined the relationship between child-care center environments and children’s physical activity by observing 175 2-to3-year-old children at 9 Dutch child-care centers. Researchers assessed children’s physical activity intensity, the social environment (e.g., group size and physical activity prompts), and the physical environment (e.g., portable and fixed
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