Purpose: Neighbourhood parks are important settings for children to explore the natural environment, socialise with others and engage in physical activity. Unfortunately many parks are not being used to their full potential and little is known about what park features are important to promote park visitation from the child’s perspective. The aim was to gain an in-depth understanding of park features that may encourage children (8-12yrs) to visit parks and be active and engage with others during their park visit.

Methods: Qualitative one-on-one walk-along interviews were completed between September 2017-February 2018 with 30 children (mean age 9.7yrs [sd 1.3], female n=16). The interviews were conducted in nine parks of varying size (1-30ha) and amenity in varying socioeconomic status areas of Melbourne, Australia. As they walked through the park with the researcher, children discussed features they (dis)liked and shared thoughts regarding park characteristics that may encourage or discourage their visitation, park-based physical activity, and social interactions. They also described their “perfect park”. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim and content analysis was performed using NVivo 12.

Results: To encourage visitation children suggested providing more challenging and interesting play equipment, a pond and water play area, more trees/greenery and shade, full sized basketball courts, and improved maintenance. Features most valued for physical activity included: sports courts, ovals and equipment; open space; large playground; bike/walking tracks; trees to climb and nature/rocks. Features most valued for social interaction included: a large size; playground; picnic/bbq areas with sufficient shelter; facilities for a range of ages; sports courts; and grassy open spaces with trees/nature. Key elements of their “perfect park” included: challenging playgrounds; large size; sports ovals and equipment; and green space/nature.

Conclusions: Children offer unique and important views and this research provides an understanding of park features that influence visitation, physical activity and social interaction from children’s perspectives. Park designers should consider inclusion of these features, particularly commonly mentioned trees/greenery and natural features, when (re)developing parks to support children to lead healthy and active lives.

Purpose: 

Increasing population density in urban areas puts pressure on schools to accommodate more children. Many primary schools lose playground area to new buildings, yet no guidelines exist on appropriate or necessary outdoor space required to facilitate students’ PA. Previous research has been confined to a small range of playground sizes, has included the modifying effect of loose equipment, and/or not examined total PA or objective physical competence. We analysed the relationship between school playground size and total (PA), fitness, and fundamental movement skills (FMS) of primary school students, accounting for presence/absence of loose equipment.

Methods:

Cross-sectional ecological analysis of 5238 students aged 5-12 years participating in the Schools Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey (SPANS) from 43 primary schools in NSW, Australia. Outcome measures were self (for age >11 years) and parent (for age ≤10 years) report of PA (meeting PA recommendations and number of days meeting recommendations), objectively measured FMS and cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness.

Results:

The combined effect of loose equipment and playground space was non-linear and showed having equipment had a positive and rapidly incremental effect on outcomes as the space increased up to 25m² per student. For example, below 20m² the probability of a student (≤10 years) in a school with loose equipment meeting PA recommendations is 0.17, and 0.56 to be in the healthy range for fitness (student of any age). At 25m² the corresponding probabilities were 0.26 and 0.75. We observed no relationship between space and FMS and an inverse relationship between population density and PA measures contrary to previous studies.

Conclusions: 

School space guidelines should specify sufficient playground space for students to be active. Our study is suggestive of better PA outcomes with increasing space up to 25m2 per student. Many schools are in areas which would not allow for expansion, and therefore policymaking must take a systems approach incorporating intersectoral planning and cooperation to ensure sufficient PA among growing school populations.

Purpose:  Outside of home, children spend most of their time in the school environment. Schools are important settings to promote physical activity and healthy eating. This project utilised a Citizen Science community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to engage children from 2 intermediate schools about barriers and facilitators of the school environment impacting their learning, activity levels, health and wellbeing.

Methods: Utilising the “Our Voice” citizen science methodology to discover, discuss, advocate and change their school environments, 241 children (10-13 years old) were actively involved in four project phases: self-led school walks with a mobile app (Stanford Discovery Tool) to capture barriers to and facilitators of their school environment, action group discussions of the data collected, advocacy training, and presentations to stakeholders. Action group participants (group size=8-10 students; total N=115) reviewed their school data, prioritised issues and brainstormed potential solutions. A subsample of students (N=23) were invited to participate in the advocacy training and co-creation presentation to stakeholders. Both schools’ advocacy groups presented videos of their findings. Qualitative thematic analysis was used for narrative data evaluation.

Mesults: In total, 1236 photos, 401 audios and 918 texts were taken. Barriers identified across both schools included lack of healthy food options, broken basketball hoops, low fencing around the court that didn’t stop the balls, and not having shelter in the outdoor activity areas to allow activity when it rained. Providing healthy eating options, a playground, new basketball hoops, higher fencing and a shelter to allow outdoor play year-round were suggested solutions. Specialty classes, fields/courts, and sports days were perceived as facilitators. Subsequently, the principal of one of the schools invited the researchers to conduct a follow-up evaluation to track improvements in early 2020. School 2 has already initiated changes within their school environment.

Conclusions: Integrating citizen science with a CBPR approach empowered children to collect significant and meaningful information about their local school environments, prioritise their concerns, and present their data to school personnel. Engaging in conversations with the schools’ principals and Board of Trustees generated practical solutions benefiting the school community. Findings were presented at various dissemination events.

Purpose: Recess, unstructured break time during the school day that is typically outdoors, is a key opportunity for physical activity, but also has potential benefits for children’s physical, cognitive and academic, and socioemotional development.  In the United States, only 6 states currently have legislation requiring recess in elementary schools. In 2018-2019, the state of Arkansas ran a pilot of extending recess from 90 minutes of physical activity per week to 60 minutes of unstructured recess per day for all elementary school students. This study was an pilot evaluation of extended recess in three schools matched for socioeconomic characteristics and academic achievement.

Methods: A mixed methods assessment was used to provide a rich description of the pilot extended recess implementation. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with principals, teachers, paraprofessionals and students. Direct observation of recess using the Great Recess Framework was paired with physical activity measured using waist-worn accelerometers (Actigraph GT9x) during recess periods.

Results: Using accelerometers (n=95 children), 33.5 (SD 18.8) percent of recess time was spent in moderate-to-vigorous (MVPA) physical activity. Boys were more active than girls (38.8% vs 29.8% MVPA) and older children were less active than younger children (38.6% MVPA in grades K-2 vs 30.6% in grades 5&6). Observational data (n=11 recess periods) found limited organized games or involvement from adults, limited non-fixed equipment, and varying abilities of students to resolve conflicts on their own. Results from the qualitative data (n=23 adult participants, 9 student focus groups) suggested the impact of non-structured extended recess includes physical, social, creative, and cognitive development in students including increased focus and improved student behavior. The challenges include logistical challenges, increased student behavioral problems at recess, and increased equipment needs. 

Conclusions: Several characteristics of lower quality recess, including limited time spent in MVPA, were observed. There were several benefits to the extended recess policy, but also several barriers to implementing extended recess. Simply extending recess time does not ensure quality recess time and strategies are needed to improve the quality of recess.

Purpose: Physical activity (PA) and physical literacy are critical to development in the early years and provide a foundation for PA over the life course. Childcare is a key setting to promote PA supportive policies, practices, and environments. In 2017, the British Columbia government enacted the Director of Licensing Standard of Practice – Active Play (AP standards). To support the AP standard, a capacity building intervention [Appetite to Play (ATP)] was also initiated. Surveys were conducted prior to and following policy enactment to determine the impact of the AP standard and capacity building intervention on childcare policies and practices.

Methods: Managers of licensed group childcare centers for children aged 3-5 years completed 2 waves of surveys (n=581 for Wave 1 and n=536 for Wave 2). The surveys asked about AP standard awareness, ATP training and policies and practices for fundamental movement skills (FMS), free play, active play, outdoor play, screen time, PA modelling, and sedentary behaviour. Chi square tests assessed change in the proportion of centers with policies in line with the AP standard. Multilevel logistic regression models in centers with matched data across waves will explore predictors of supportive policies, environments and practices.

Results: A significantly greater proportion of facilities reported supportive PA policies in Wave 2 compared to Wave 1 (p<.01). For example in Wave 1, 41% of managers reported a policy about daily outdoor play time and in Wave 2 it was reported by 79% of managers. Over half of wave 2 participants indicated that in the past year, they had changed their PA policies related to time spent outdoors and FMS development. In Wave 2, 22% of managers had participated in ATP training and participation was significantly associated with having a policy for amount of active play time (p=.03).

Conclusions: A greater proportion of childcare centers were implementing written active play policies following the enactment of the AP standard, and training was significantly associated with policy implementation. The analysis of the matched data set will provide further insight into the mediators and moderators of policy implementation and adherence.

Purpose

Many countries in the world have mandatory school uniforms. An emerging barrier to student physical activity at school, particularly among girls are traditional uniforms that are impractical, i.e. dresses, skirts and black leather shoes. Modifying the school uniform to be more activity enabling may be a simple intervention to improve student’s physical activity. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of a uniform intervention on students aged 8-10 years physical activity levels across the segmented school day.

Methods

A cluster randomised controlled trial was undertaken in 21 primary schools in New South Wales, Australia with students in grade 2 and 3.  School days were randomised to a one day activity friendly uniform intervention, whereby students wore their sports uniform one randomly selected day of the week that they would otherwise wear their traditional uniform. This was compared with up to three other days where traditional uniform was worn. Student physical activity was measured using wrist worn GT-3X accelerometers for 5 school days, Chandler cut points were applied. Repeated measures linear mixed models were used to analyse the data comparing measures of physical activity during segments of the school day (whole school day, combined  breaks and classroom time). Physical activity was a combination of light, moderate and vigorous.

Results

There were 1215 consenting students of which 475 had valid data. The preliminary findings of the study found that overall students participated in 3.95 [2.74-5.16] (p=<0.001) more minutes per day. When segmented for student sex, both boys and girls participated in significantly more physical activity on the day they wore their sports uniform 4.59min [2.85-6.32] (p=<0.001) and 3.35min [1.66-5.04] (p=<0.001) respectively, compared to the day they wore their traditional uniform.

Conclusion

Given the many challenges faced when implementing at scale, school physical activity interventions this study suggests that a school uniform policy change may represent a simple means of improving student physical activity; one that does not require significant resource to build the capacity of schools and their staff to support implementation.