Health benefits, variability, and correlates of outdoor play in preschool-aged children
Creators: Davenport, Cody
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2023

<p>Children’s outdoor play (OP) has been consistently declining over recent decades. As such, OP research has increased; however, important gaps remain in the literature, especially for preschool-aged children (3-5 years). Specifically, there is a need to better understand the health benefits of OP, the barriers and facilitators that impact OP opportunities, and the best method to measure OP. The overall objective of this thesis was to address gaps and limitations in the current evidence base regarding OP in preschool-aged children.<br>
Two manuscripts were written to address the overall objective. Data for this thesis was from the cross-sectional Parent-Child Movement Behaviours and Pre-School Children’s Development project. In total, 107 preschool-aged children and parents from Edmonton, Canada, and surrounding areas participated in the study and had data for the variables of interest. All participants were recruited through a local division of Sportball. Children’s OP was measured using a parental questionnaire and the lux feature of ActiGraph WGT3X-BT accelerometers. Correlates from various levels (i.e., individual, parental, microsystem, institutional, and physical ecology level) of the socioecological framework were measured via parental questionnaire and weather data obtained from the Edmonton International Airport. Health indicators of physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development were assessed.<br>
The objective of the first manuscript was to examine the variability of parental-reported OP, the convergent validity of the parental-reported and device-based measure of OP, and the correlates of parental-reported and device-based measured OP. To examine the variability of parental-reported OP between summer/fall and winter months and between weekday and weekend days, paired sample t-tests were conducted. To examine the convergent validity of parental-reported and device-based measures of OP in the summer/fall months, a Spearman rank<br>
correlation coefficient was calculated to explore the relative convergent validity and a Wilcoxon signed-rank test was conducted to explore the absolute convergent validity. Linear and logistic regression models were run to examine associations between potential correlates at various levels of the socioecological framework and parental-reported and device-based measured OP. Findings demonstrated that children’s OP was significantly higher in summer/fall months compared to winter months and on weekend days compared to weekdays. The device-based measure was significantly correlated with the parental-reported measure; however, the parental- reported measure had significantly higher estimates of OP compared to the device-based measure. Additionally, temperature was positively associated with parental-reported (summer/fall months) and device-based measures of OP. Parental age was positively associated with parental-reported OP on weekend days.<br>
The objective of the second manuscript was to examine the associations between parental-reported and device-based measured OP and health indicators of physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development and determine if these associations were independent of outdoor moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA). To address this objective, linear and logistic regression models were conducted, with all models adjusting for relevant covariates and additional models adjusting for accelerometer-derived outdoor MVPA. Several parental-reported OP variables (i.e., total OP, OP in summer/fall months, OP on weekdays) were negatively associated with response inhibition and working memory. However, these associations were no longer statistically significant after adjusting for outdoor MVPA. Also, after adjusting for outdoor MVPA, OP on weekdays was negatively associated with externalizing.<br>
The findings from this thesis add to the limited evidence on the variability, correlates, and health associations of OP in preschoolers. Overall, findings suggest that OP initiatives and<br>
interventions should target all weather/seasons and be available to children on weekdays and weekend days. Enabling OP opportunities may be an effective way to help promote healthy development in preschool-aged children. Gaining a better understanding of when, where, and with who children engage in OP may be an important consideration when designing interventions for this age group. Findings from this study provide several directions for future research. Future research is needed to determine the best approach and method to measure OP for preschool-aged children, as findings were not consistent across measurement types. Given the limited evidence of OP correlates in this age group, further studies are needed to confirm our findings and explore OP correlates across various levels of the socioecological framework while considering day-of-the-week differences in children’s OP engagement. Additionally, future research should build on this preliminary work to better understand the developmental benefits<br>
of OP in this age group and consider the impact MVPA may have on these associations.</p>