Places where children are active: A longitudinal examination of children's physical activity

Abstract

Using two-year longitudinal data, we examined locations where children spent time and were active, whether location patterns were stable, and relationships between spending time in their home neighborhood and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). At two time points (2007–2009 and 2009–2011), children living in the metropolitans areas of either San Diego, CA or Seattle, WA wore an accelerometer, and parents recorded their child’s locations for seven days. Across two years, global average proportion of time spent in each location was stable, but total time and proportion of time in each location spent in MVPA decreased significantly across all locations. Children spent the largest proportion of time in MVPA in their home neighborhood at both time points, although they spent little time in their home neighborhood.

Development and Evaluation of A New Measure of Children’s Play: The Children’s Play Scale (CPS)

“…Away from home children were most likely to play at the park or in green spaces. These results align with research using accelerometers and place-logs, which showed that children spent almost 50% of their time at home (24). Other than at home or school, Perry and colleagues found that children primarily spent time at other people's homes or in parks, which also aligns with our ndings.…”

Physical and Social Contexts of Physical Activity Behaviors of Fifth and Seventh Grade Youth

“…22 Our results are partially consistent with those of a longitudinal study conducted in a different region of the United States in which parent-reported home, school, and neighborhood were common physical activity locations; however, unlike the present study, children also commonly engaged in physical activity in indoor and outdoor recreational facilities and parks. 23 These differences could be due in part to differences in study methodology and perhaps regional differences in preferences or availability of/access to facilities.…”

“…For example, one research team reported that one children are physically active primarily outdoors away from home, followed by indoors at home, with other locations such as a gym or recreation facility being less common . Another found that home/neighborhood and school were the most common locations, whereas a third study found that indoor and outdoor community facilities and parks were the most common locations for physical activity …”

“…21 Another found that home/neighborhood and school were the most common locations, 22 whereas a third study found that indoor and outdoor community facilities and parks were the most common locations for physical activity. 23 The social environment may exert more influence on youth physical activity than the physical environment. 23,24 However, the physical and social environments are also inextricably linked, 25 which suggests that a full understanding of the contexts in which youth engage in physical activity requires an understanding of both the people with whom youth are active and the places where they are active.…”

Crianças nos parques: segurança acima de tudo

“…As áreas próximas à residência das crianças revelam-se como potenciais ambientes promotores da sua AF (MITCHELL et al, 2016;PERRY et al, 2016). A percepção parental sobre os arredores da residência da criança pode ser um facilitador da AF moderada-vigorosa (KURKA et al, 2015) e da mobilidade independente das crianças (SANTOS et al, 2013).…”