Abstract


Playing outdoors is beneficial for children’s development and learning. Investigating how children’s play varies in different types of outdoor environments can offer valuable insight to better support their development. As part of a larger comprehensive study examining the impact of naturalizing outdoor play environments, this article focuses on investigating young children’s physical activity levels and movements on equipment-based and a naturalized outdoor play environments at a licensed early childhood education and care setting. Through a quasi-experimental mixed method design, the present study used wrist- and hip-worn accelerometers as well as spatial behaviour mapping to investigate the level of physical activity and movement between the two types of outdoor play environments. Findings from the accelerometer data indicated a significant decrease in moderate-vigorous physical activity, and a significant increase in sedentary behaviour in the naturalized outdoor play environment. Spatial behaviour mapping revealed that this decrease in physical activity post-naturalization could be due to children engaging in longer periods of more clustered (i.e., multiple experiences in a similar area) play interactions and experiences on the naturalized outdoor play environment compared to the equipment-based environment. This research is valuable for considering how children’s more holistic development could be supported on a naturalized outdoor play environment to inform pedagogical and policy decisions.

Authors: Squires, K.; van Rhijn, T.; Breau, B.; Harwood, D.; Haines, J.; Coghill, M.

Journal: Journal of Environmental Psychology

Year: 2024

Similar Articles



Projects

Explore our institute’s active engagement in developing playgrounds’ future through innovative research and current projects.


Briefs

We are dedicated to sharing valuable insights from research studies and reviews through concise and accessible publications.


Articles

Explore our article database for a comprehensive array of global research and insights, offering diverse perspectives and knowledge.


News

Stay up-to-date and engaged through the latest news, project updates, events, and activities specific to playground research.

Hi there 👋

We would love to get to know you better! Please take a moment to answer a few quick questions so we can improve our website.