Outdoor Activities Now and Then
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Introduction[edit | edit source]
A child’s right to play is enshrined by article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child [1]. Asked about their childhood, most adults will probably describe playing in outdoor environments, such as woods, parks, streets and playgrounds [2,3]. Research among mothers in 16 different nations, located on five different continents, revealed their beliefs that both free play and experiential learning opportunities are eroding for children. Although there were significant differences in language, geography, culture, history and religious beliefs across the sample, similar trends were identified. For example, children were mostly watching television in their free time, because it was considered as an acceptable alternative as children had few safe places to accommodate outdoor play activities. In play, the perception of risk and culture are intricately linked, and depend upon a variety of factors including economic, technological, cultural, legal and historical factors [2,4,5]. Contemporary children prefer more technologically advanced toys that are played primarily indoors, whereas past generations of children played more outdoors [6]. 75% of adults in the UK reported playing in their local streets as the places they preferred mostly, but 41% of today’s children in the UK favour playing inside a home. Generational decreases have also been reported for England in the permission of 7-11 year old children to travel without an adult to school: from 86% in 1971, to 35% in 1990, and 25% in 2010 [7].
Decreasing children’s opportunities to play outdoors are grouped into four categories:
- Time (nature-starved curriculum, time-poor parents, lack of free-range play) Fear (stranger danger, dangerous streets, risk averse culture) Technology (rise of screen time), and Space (vanishing green space) [2].
- The rising anxiety about children’s safety was described as a common feature of modern societies in the 20th century. Beside overprotective parenting also the conception of childhood has changed. The understanding of a child as resilient and capable shifted to the picture of a vulnerable child who needs continuous safeguarding, although this may not be true for all children and societies. Children incorporate their culture’s roles and activities into their play. The play of children in each culture reflects the values and customs of their communities. Therefore, the expression of play can be understood as a socio-cultural phenomenon [8].
- Among a hunting and gathering society in Brazil, children were observed to engage in pretend activities that imitate and mirror adult subsistence activities. Boys were playing with bows and arrows, imitating hunting actions, and girls grinding flour into tacos and making baskets as their mothers do. Such observations suggest that children are active agents in their own socialization and that play is culturally constructed [2]. However, more perspectives from researchers or practitioners in African countries, minority cultural groups, and immigrants/refugees in high-income countries, persons living with disability, and people from gender-diverse communities are needed to understand local diversities and the translation of elements in risky play to various environments and cultures [9]. As mentioned, also perceptions of risk are subject to cultural interpretation. A growing risk aversion has been described for some developed Western societies, such as Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America [4]. However, the assumption that indoor play is safer than outdoor play may be misguided in light of the potential harms of the internet (such as violence, cyber-bullying, online predators, pornography), reduced physical activity and unnecessary incidental eating [3].
Dr. Pooja Tandon from The University of Washington and Seattle Children's discusses physical activity in children:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WoHOW3kUHY
Active transportation and sedentary behaviour of children
Attention disorders, depression and failure to appropriately use their senses were frequently observed in the last years, and termed ‘nature deficit disorder' on the basis of a lack of first-hand experience with outdoor environments [2]. Physical activity outside also includes active transportation to commuting to school or other places, either by walking or riding a bike. The percentage of children and youth using active transportation to get to and from places differs greatly between and among countries. For example, for Japan, Zimbabwe, Denmark, Hong Kong and Nepal high levels of active transportation are reported, as well as South Korea, Colombia, Nigeria, Finland or Venezuela. A comparison of 49 countries (actually 47, as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates did not provide data for this variable) has shown that the more developed the countries were, the lower they scored in active transportation of children. In developing countries, active transportation may be the result of a lack of access to public transport and motor vehicles, but highly developed countries scoring high in active transport of children provided both infrastructure and policy to support active transportation [10].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJkHz-3xs3k
Sedentary behaviours can be defined as “any waking behaviour characterized by an energy expenditure ≤1.5 metabolic equivalents, while in a sitting, reclining, or lying posture”. Screen-based behaviours are often understood synonymously to sedentary behaviour. Screen time is associated with a variety of negative health outcomes among children and youth. Childhood screen time is particularly concerning in high and very high developed countries [10]. For example, a report from 2012 states that Britain’s children watched, on average, more than 17 hours of television a week. This was up by 12% since 2007. In 2012, British children were also spending more than 20 hours a week online, mostly on social networking sites, and their ‘electronic addictions’ increased, as they grew older. Britain’s 11–15-year-olds were reported to spend about half their waking lives in front of a screen: 7.5 hours a day, which is an increase of 40% in a decade [11]! However, the moderately good grades for sedentary behaviour or screen time in low and middle resource countries are potentially threatened by continuing economic growth and development, probably leading to increased access to electronic devices [10].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpBPT3Cw4GY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPhcDHlPtZY
The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on physical and mental health of children
Outdoor risky play for children was recommended by the Australian Physiotherapy Association as a response to school lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic [12]. Closed schools and remote teaching resulted in decreased school sports and weight gain due to increasing sedentary behaviour. Furthermore, rising psychological issues were identified, such as anxiety and depression, in both children and teenagers alike due to a lack of physical exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is suggested that physical activity may serve as a protective factor for mental health issues [13]. A scoping review of 84 studies from all world regions investigated the effects of COVID-19 restrictions on children’s physical activity and their determinants [14]. Researchers identified a decrease in physical activity during the pandemic, both in duration and frequency of physical activity, ranging between −10.8 min/day and −91 min/day (e.g. -45 min/day in Chile or −91 min/day in Spain). If an increase of physical activity was detected, it was related to unstructured and outdoor activities! In Sweden, where no lockdowns were introduced, an increase in physical activity was reported to be +53 min/day. This decrease of physical activity is especially concerning as previous studies have shown that most children and adolescents around the globe did not reach the physical activity guidelines recommended by the WHO even before the pandemic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TZpjumGyPg
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8. Tchombe TMS, Nsamenang AB, Keller H, Fülöp M. Cross-cultural psychology : an Africentric perspective [Internet]. DESIGN House, Limbe, CM; 2013 [cited 2020 Nov 20]. Available from: https://idl-bnc-idrc.dspacedirect.org/handle/10625/53741
9. Lee EY, de Lannoy L, Li L, de Barros MIA, Bentsen P, Brussoni M, et al. Play, Learn, and Teach Outdoors-Network (PLaTO-Net): terminology, taxonomy, and ontology. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2022 Jun 15;19(1):66.
10. Aubert S, Barnes JD, Abdeta C, Nader PA, Adeniyi AF, Aguilar-Farias N, et al. Global Matrix 3.0 Physical Activity Report Card Grades for Children and Youth: Results and Analysis From 49 Countries. J Phys Act Health [Internet]. 2018 Jan 2 [cited 2022 Jun 9];15(s2):S251–73. Available from: https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/jpah/15/s2/article-pS251.xml
11. Moss S. Natural Childhood [Internet]. read-our-natural-childhood-report. 2012 [cited 2022 Jun 13]. Available from: https://nt.global.ssl.fastly.net/documents/read-our-natural-childhood-report.pdf
12. Australian Physiotherapy Association. School is out for the year, time to get our kids engaged in more risky play for physical and cognitive development [Internet]. 2020. Available from: https://australian.physio/media/school-out-year-time-get-our-kids-engaged-more-risky-play-physical-and-cognitive-development
13. Meade J. Mental Health Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Adolescents. Pediatr Clin North Am [Internet]. 2021 Oct [cited 2022 Jun 13];68(5):945–59. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8445752/
14. Rossi L, Behme N, Breuer C. Physical Activity of Children and Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Scoping Review. Int J Environ Res Public Health [Internet]. 2021 Oct 30 [cited 2022 Jun 9];18(21):11440. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8583307/
