Let’s do those 60 minutes! Children’s perceived landscape for daily physical activity

Abstract

In a scientific effort to understand the reasons for low physical-activity levels among children, there is a need to consider how children perceive and interact with their complex environments holistically. This study outlines an image of the perceived landscape within which children in two lowersocioeconomic contexts engage in daily physical activity. By applying bioecological perspectives (Bronfenbrenner, U. 2005. Making human Beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human development. SAGE), the aim included an analysis of how the perceived landscape and its interrelated factors influence children's physical activity. We used 15 focus-group interviews with children (n = 63, ages 8-13) from four different rural and suburban areas of southern and central Sweden. Through analyzing the children's stories about their experiences of everyday physical activity from a bioecological perspective, an image of a complex landscape was revealed. Structural (schools' institutional frameworks), cultural (local sports cultures), and environmental factors (e.g. schoolyard design) were evident in interpersonal relations within the microsystem and interacted with personal characteristics, primarily gender and level of physical competence and, thereby, affected the possibilities of the children engaging in proximal processes related to physical activity. This study contributes new qualitative understanding based on children's voices about how the performance of daily physical activity among younger children (ages 7-13) in lower-socioeconomic areas may be considered an interactional process between individuals and their perceived environment, which can be thought of as a multidimensional landscape. Implications include actions which contribute to more diverse environments enabling proximal processes among a broader group of children.

Managing information on the physical education research field: Bibliometric analysis

“…Among the topics attracting research interest it is worth mentioning the study of teaching and learning in primary physical education through the use of photo-diaries [41] and the review of literature on physical education learning in accordance with the self- determination theory [42]. The second cluster deals with physical education in the school period, focusing, besides school education, on the attitudes of children to physical activity [43] and the determinants of engaging in this activity such as 'being with friends', 'variety in activity content', 'experiencing fun', 'time constraints' and 'opportunity to be outside' [44]. The third cluster identified within the research field relates to physical education of adolescents.…”

A realist case study inquiry of English primary school physical activity initiatives

“…Parental engagement is therefore crucial, but notoriously difficult (Gorely et al, 2011). Efforts could be targeted not only to encourage children to participate in school-based PA initiatives but also to engage parents in school matters, in order to fulfil the socio-ecological approach to behavioural change (Christian et al, 2015;Högman et al, 2020). For example, organised school activities and trips within the locality can impact both children and parents to realise that they can easily replicate these activities in their own time.…”

“…Age-appropriate physical activity (PA) is known to have social, cognitive, psychological, and physical developmental benefits during childhood and is integral to a child's entitlement to good health (Högman et al, 2020;Janssen & Leblanc, 2010). Childhood is a critical period for forging healthy behaviours in PA which can later track into positive behaviours in adulthood (Arundell et al, 2013;Telama et al, 2014).…”

“Being or becoming physically active”: unpacking conceptions about objectives and methods in partnership-based alternative sports activities

“…In order for collaborative programmes to succeed in increasing levels of physical activity among children, it is necessary for the pedagogical content to be based on solid knowledge about children's physical activity behaviour and development from an ecological perspective (Eime et al, 2015). Any claims of such knowledge should include children's own perspectives, recognising them as social actors capable of influencing their living environments (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006;H€ ogman et al, 2020).…”