Outdoor play among children in relation to neighborhood characteristics: a cross-sectional neighborhood observation study

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough environmental characteristics as perceived by parents are known to be related to children’s outdoor play behavior, less is known about the relation between independently measured neighborhood characteristics and outdoor play among children. The purpose of this study was to identify quantitative as well as qualitative neighborhood characteristics related to outdoor play by means of neighborhood observations.MethodsQuestionnaires including questions on outdoor play behavior of the child were distributed among 3,651 parents of primary school children (aged 4–12 years). Furthermore, neighborhood observations were conducted in 33 Dutch neighborhoods to map neighborhood characteristics such as buildings, formal outdoor play facilities, public space, street pattern, traffic safety, social neighborhood characteristics, and general impression. Data of the questionnaires and the neighborhood observations were coupled via postal code of the respondents. Multilevel GEE analyses were performed to quantify the correlation between outdoor play and independently measured neighborhood characteristics.ResultsParental education was negatively associated with outdoor play among children. Neither the presence nor the overall quality of formal outdoor play facilities were (positively) related to outdoor play among children in this study. Rather, informal play areas such as the presence of sidewalks were related to children’s outdoor play. Also, traffic safety was an important characteristic associated with outdoor play.ConclusionsThis study showed that, apart from individual factors such as parental education level, certain modifiable characteristics in the neighborhood environment (as measured by neighborhood observations) were associated with outdoor play among boys and girls of different age groups in The Netherlands. Local policy makers from different sectors can use these research findings in creating more activity-friendly neighborhoods for children.

Playability: Built and Social Environment Features That Promote Physical Activity Within Children

“…Both perceived and objective methods (audits (7 studies) and GIS (12 studies)) were used to measure attributes of the neighbourhood environment. The spatial range of the audits included street blocks [32,40], census blocks [36,43], neighbourhood [50], school attendance boundaries [39] and a quarter-mile (400 m) route from home to nearest nonresidential destination [31].…”

“…Half of the studies were from North America (12 from the USA, one from Canada) [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43], four were from Australia [44][45][46][47], three from the Netherlands [48][49][50], two from Belgium [51, 52•] and one each from the UK [53•], Portugal [54], Spain [55] and Norway [56]. The majority of the studies (n=22) included crosssectional analyses only; four studies included a prospective design [33, 48, 49, 53•] and two included both crosssectional and prospective analyses [33,48].…”

“…[57,58]), in the current review, there were several examples of conceptually mismatched exposures and behaviours (e.g. [42,43,50,54]) which may dilute the evidence of the importance of attributes of the neighbourhood environment for active living and potentially inhibit uptake of evidence into policy.…”

“…Water features [50] 2 ( 1 ) + associations in the expected direction, 0 null associations, − associations in the direction opposite to expected, Mix mixed findings between subgroups Neighbourhood aesthetics was examined in six studies but was not consistently associated with either overall/leisure time or transport-related physical activity [38, 43, 49, 50, 52•, 54].…”

The influence of the neighborhood physical environment on early child health and development: A review and call for research

“…A single study examining the association between parent perceived neighborhood safety and children's cognitive development found no association (Kiernan et al, 2008). In young children, the amount of outdoor play as well as the time spent outside unaccompanied at the front of the house or on the street was negatively associated with street traffic (Hüttenmoser, 1995;Aarts et al, 2012), however most studies reported no association between features of neighborhood safety (e.g., safety from traffic and crime) and measures of outdoor play and physical activity (Burdette and Whitaker, 2005;Kimbro et al, 2011;De Vries et al, 2010;Sallis et al, 2002;Timperio et al, 2004).…”