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Built environment, parents' perception, and children's vigorous outdoor play
Bettina Bringolf-Isler1, Leticia Grize, Urs Mäder
1Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland. Bettina.Bringolf@unibas.ch
Preventive Medicine
|March 30, 2010
Summary
Socio-cultural factors, parental perceptions, and environmental characteristics significantly influence children
Area of Science:
- Environmental health
- Child development
- Urban planning
Background:
- Understanding factors influencing children's outdoor play is crucial for public health.
- Previous research has explored individual and environmental determinants of physical activity.
- The interplay between socio-cultural, perceived, and objective environmental factors requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the combined and relative impacts of socio-cultural aspects and parental environmental perceptions on children's vigorous outdoor play time.
- To determine the influence of objectively measured environmental features on children's outdoor play duration.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study involving 1345 parental questionnaires from children aged 6-14 years in Switzerland.
- Environmental data linked to 1081 home addresses using a geographic information system (GIS).
- Analysis considered socio-demographic, parental perceptions, and GIS-derived environmental variables.
Main Results:
- Higher main street density near homes was linked to less outdoor play in urbanized areas for younger children and adolescents.
- Parental concern about traffic safety independently reduced outdoor play time in primary school children.
- Girls, adolescents, and children from French-speaking regions played outdoors less; non-Swiss nationality and younger siblings were associated with more vigorous play in adolescents.
Conclusions:
- Socio-cultural factors, parental perceptions, and objective environmental measures significantly predict children's vigorous outdoor play.
- The influence of these factors varies across different age groups.
- Findings highlight the complex relationship between environment, socio-cultural context, and children's physical activity.
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