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Preschool Daily Patterns of Physical Activity Driven by Location and Social Context

Chelsey R Schlechter1, Richard R Rosenkranz2, Bronwyn S Fees3

  • 1Department of Kinesiology, 7a Natatorium, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506.

The Journal of School Health
|February 2, 2017
PubMed

Insights

Preschool children achieved 30% of total physical activity (TPA) daily. Increasing outdoor time and using small group activities significantly boosts children's TPA levels.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Health
  • Early Childhood Education
  • Physical Activity Research

Background:

  • Preschool children require at least 15 minutes per hour (25% of time) in light-to-vigorous physical activity (total physical activity, TPA).
  • Preschool provider practices, including activity structures like small group versus whole group, may influence children's TPA.
  • Understanding TPA patterns and influencing factors is crucial for promoting healthy development in early childhood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To characterize the daily physical activity patterns in preschool children.
  • To examine how location (indoor vs. outdoor) affects TPA levels.
  • To investigate the relationship between social arrangement (small group vs. whole group) and TPA.

Main Methods:

  • Video recording of 8 preschool classrooms over 15 days.
  • Accelerometers worn by 73 children (aged 3-6 years) throughout the preschool day.
  • Observation of contextual variables: time, location, and social arrangement for a subsample.

Main Results:

  • Children spent 69.5% of the day sedentary/inactive and 30.5% in TPA.
  • Significantly more TPA occurred outdoors compared to indoors (p < .001).
  • Small group activities resulted in significantly higher TPA than whole group activities (p = .009).

Conclusions:

  • Preschool children accumulate approximately 30% of their TPA during the preschool day.
  • Increasing outdoor time is a key strategy to enhance children's TPA.
  • Restructuring activities to favor small groups over whole groups can increase physical activity levels.
Abstract

Keywords:
accelerometerindoor physical activityoutdoor physical activitypreschoolpreschool children's physical activitypreschool children's social influences

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