Physical Activity & Motor Skills

School recess plays a crucial role in promoting physical activity, contributing up to 44% of children’s physical activity during school days. Yet with rising global temperatures, extreme heat poses a growing barrier to outdoor activity in schoolyards.

Shade—whether from trees or structures—may help offset thermal discomfort, but its role in sustaining physical activity levels under hot conditions is an understudied topic.

To better understand these dynamics, Lanza and colleagues (2022) examined how ambient temperature and shade availability affect children’s moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in schoolyards.

The study, conducted at three elementary schools in Austin, Texas, examined MVPA and locations of 213 children aged 8-10. Accelerometers and GPS monitors were used during recess in the fall of 2019, with temperatures ranging from 11 °C to 35 °C (53-96 °F).

Findings from this study are especially relevant for school administrators, public health officials, and urban planners aiming to create heat-resilient environments that promote children’s health and well-being in a warming climate.

A child-friendly neighborhood supports the fundamental needs of children’s daily lives and promotes their physical, emotional, and social development.

However, parents’ perception of a neighborhood as child-friendly can influence where they choose to live and how comfortable they feel letting their children play outside or move around on their own. These choices affect children’s physical activity, which directly impacts their health and well-being.

To understand these choices, researcher Xiaoli Gong set out in her PhD project to develop a new instrument that measures how parents in the Netherlands perceive a neighborhood’s child-friendliness.

She also explored how these perceptions influence parents’ housing choices and children’s physical activity.

This brief summarizes key findings from Gong’s publications from 2024 and 2025, offering valuable insights for urban planners, designers, researchers, and professionals focused on child-friendly environments.

The findings can inform the planning of interventions to create more child-friendly neighborhoods that promote children’s physical activity and health.

Playgrounds offer numerous health benefits, serving as spaces for physical activity, social interaction, stress relief, and motor skill development. However, not all communities have equal access, and distance from home can significantly impact how often families visit and use them.

To explore this, Young and colleagues (2023) surveyed 1350 adults at 60 public playgrounds across 10 U.S. cities during the summer of 2021. Their study examined whether distance to the playground from their home was associated with visit frequency, length of stay, and mode of transportation.

By understanding these patterns, city planners and public health officials can design more accessible and better-connected public play spaces to encourage outdoor physical activity and improve community well-being.