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Updated: May 13, 2026
Methodology for Establishing a Community-Wide Life Laboratory for Capturing Unobtrusive and Continuous Remote Activity and Health Data
Published on: July 27, 2018
Profile of the PLAY spaces & environments for children's physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep (PLAYCE)
Hayley Christian1,2, Andrea Nathan3,4, Stewart G Trost5
1The Kids Research Institute Australia, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia. hayley.christian@uwa.edu.au.
Insights
Few young children meet movement guidelines. Home and early childhood education environments influence physical activity. Findings will inform guidelines and interventions for child health.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric health research
- Developmental psychology
- Environmental health
Background:
- Childhood is crucial for developing movement behaviors like physical activity, sleep, and sedentary time.
- The PLAYCE Cohort study tracks these behaviors from early to middle childhood.
- It examines influences of settings and relationships on health and development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide an overview of the PLAYCE cohort.
- To summarize key findings on children's movement behaviors to date.
- To outline future research opportunities within the cohort.
Main Methods:
- Recruited children aged 2-5 years, following them to 11-13 years (in progress).
- Measured movement behaviors using parent-report and accelerometry.
- Collected data on social-emotional and motor development, weight, diet, socio-demographics, and physical environments.
Main Results:
- Only 8% of 2-5 year olds met all Australian 24-hour Movement Guidelines.
- Meeting guidelines was linked to better social-emotional development in boys.
- Home yard features and ECEC outdoor environments (tree canopy, play equipment) positively impacted physical activity.
Conclusions:
- Wave 4 data (11-13 years) collection completion in 2026 will enable comprehensive longitudinal analysis.
- Four waves of data will reveal movement behavior patterns, health impacts, and environmental influences.
- Findings will inform 24-Hour Movement Guidelines and interventions for child health and wellbeing.
Background:
Childhood is a critical period for the development of movement behaviours such as physical activity, sleep and sedentary behaviour. The PLAYCE Cohort was established to investigate how movement behaviours change over early to middle childhood, across key behaviour settings and relationships with health and development. An overview of the PLAYCE cohort, summary of key findings to date, and future research opportunities are presented.
Methods:
Children were recruited at 2-5 years of age (preschool; Wave 1) via early childhood education and care (ECEC) services and were followed up in junior primary school (5-7 years; Wave 2) at 8-10 years (Wave 3) and again at 11-13 years (Wave 4; in progress). Children's movement behaviours were measured via parent-report and accelerometry. Social-emotional development, motor development, weight status, diet, and child and family socio-demographics were parent-reported. Physical environmental features of children's key behaviour settings (home, neighbourhood, ECEC and school) were collected using geo-spatial and audit data.
Results To Date:
At wave 1 (2-5 years), only 8% of children met all three recommendations of the Australian 24-hour Movement Guidelines for the Early Years. Meeting all recommendations (8%) was positively associated with boys social-emotional development. Physical environment features of the home yard (size, play equipment, natural features) were positively associated with preschool children's physical activity. Tree canopy and more portable play equipment in ECEC outdoor areas was also positively associated with children's outdoor time and physical activity.
Conclusions:
Wave 4 (11-13 years) data collection will be completed in early 2026. Traditional longitudinal and compositional data analysis of the PLAYCE cohort will be undertaken. Four waves of data will provide detailed patterns of movement behaviours and their effect on child health and development as well as the environmental influences on children's movement behaviours across early to middle childhood. The findings can be used to inform national and international 24-Hour Movement Guidelines and behaviour setting-specific as well as population-level interventions to benefit child health and wellbeing across early to middle childhood.
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