Fig 2 - uploaded by Marcella Raney
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
In urban low-income neighborhoods, child wellbeing is highly dependent on the school ecosystem. The schoolyard, specifically, provides opportunities for physical and social development during recess. The purpose of our study was to examine the impact of various schoolyard design features and green space on unstructured recess play behaviors accordi...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... field popularity was similar for asphalt schoolyards (S1 and S2) across gender and age-group (16.5%, 95% CI = 13.9-19.1%) but differed between the two green schoolyards with grass fields (S4 and S5) according to gender, p <.05. Specifically, although there was no difference in percentage of students observed playing in the parklike grass field (Fig. 2a) between girls and boys at S4 (girls: 18.5%, 95% CI = 17.1-19.8%; boys: 16.4%, 95% CI = 13.5-19.3%), more boys played in the sport-specific grass field (Fig. 2b) at S5 than girls (girls: 17.0%, 95% CI = 14.8-19.2%; boys: 37.0%, 95% CI = 30.4 ...
Context 2
... with grass fields (S4 and S5) according to gender, p <.05. Specifically, although there was no difference in percentage of students observed playing in the parklike grass field (Fig. 2a) between girls and boys at S4 (girls: 18.5%, 95% CI = 17.1-19.8%; boys: 16.4%, 95% CI = 13.5-19.3%), more boys played in the sport-specific grass field (Fig. 2b) at S5 than girls (girls: 17.0%, 95% CI = 14.8-19.2%; boys: 37.0%, 95% CI = 30.4 ...
Context 3
... activity score was significantly lower in asphalt open fields than green open fields (1.3, 95% CI = 1.1-1.4 vs 2.4, 95% CI = 2.3-2.6 arbitrary units). However, as shown in Fig. 7, while there was no difference in activity scores between genders in the parklike grass field of S4 (Fig. 2a), activity scores in the sport-specific grass field (Fig. 2b) were significantly greater for boys than girls at ...
Context 4
... activity score was significantly lower in asphalt open fields than green open fields (1.3, 95% CI = 1.1-1.4 vs 2.4, 95% CI = 2.3-2.6 arbitrary units). However, as shown in Fig. 7, while there was no difference in activity scores between genders in the parklike grass field of S4 (Fig. 2a), activity scores in the sport-specific grass field (Fig. 2b) were significantly greater for boys than girls at ...
Citations
... Growing research demonstrates that current configurations of secondary schoolyards do not meet the restorative needs of female students Raney, Daniel, and Jack 2023;Spark, Porter, and de Kleyn 2019). Evidence also suggests male and female students engage with schoolyard spaces differently (Blatchford, Baines, and Pellegrini 2003;Leigh, Muminovic, and Davey 2023;Pawlowski et al. 2015). ...
... Practitioners and researchers have been interested in the extent to which different environments support the 'moderate to vigorous' levels of activity that promote health (Brown et al. 2019). The concept often co-occurred with related variants, such as moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) (Norman et al. 2010, Nicaise et al. 2011, Van Cauwenberghe et al. 2012, Laxer and Janssen 2013, Yi et al. 2021, Carver et al. 2023, Hasanzadeh et al. 2023, Raney et al. 2023, daily physical activity (Escalante et al. 2012(Escalante et al. , Özbil et al. 2020, or physical activity levels (Cradock et al. 2007, Broekhuizen et al. 2014, Gu et al. 2022, Bao et al. 2023, Hasanzadeh et al. 2023, all of which belong to the topic of Physical Activity and Health. This is consistent with the results presented earlier from the Bigram operation, and also suggests that in the field of children's play spaces, most studies focus on physical activity. ...
... Designated play areas such as school campuses and community parks serve as primary activity spaces for children (Bennet et al. 2012), and the spatial layout, quality of facilities, and safety of these places influence children's usage and activity levels (Cradock et al. 2007, Farley et al. 2008, Escalante et al. 2012, Baloğlu 2019, Raney et al. 2023. There exist systematic gaps in both cross-sectional and longitudinal research regarding children's play experiences in relation to the layout, quality, and safety of play spaces. ...
Amongst ongoing urban densification, urban environments are increasingly lacking adequate and well-connected play spaces. While studies into child-friendly cities have focused on low-density urban areas, this study gathers different insights on the perception of high-density urban environments and children's play. Using the Bibliometrix R-Tool, the study identified significant potential relationships in the literature on children's play spaces, children's well-being and built environment characteristics. Synthesizing research from various countries, we summarize the current insights around assessing the quality of children's play spaces. This approach can provide guidance to create improved play spaces, as part of more sustainable and liveable compact cities.
... These natural environments provide unique opportunities for children to engage in various forms of PA, which can contribute to their overall health and well-being. Some authors [66] have found that playgrounds with green areas promote higher levels of PA, due to the shade of trees among other reasons. A lower density of schoolchildren also favors this. ...
Background: In today’s society, low levels of physical activity are observed in the child and adolescent population, which can cause numerous pathologies, such as obesity and mental health problems. Objective: This article aims to compile all the contexts and scenarios where it is possible to increase the levels of daily physical activity of children and young people, and which have significant scientific support. Method. To do so, a literature review was carried out examining four key contexts for intervention: school, extracurricular, family, and socio-community. Results: The results indicate that the school context, with strategies such as physical education classes and active breaks, is crucial but insufficient on its own, so it is essential to complement it with interventions in extracurricular, family, and socio-community environments. The involvement of families, access to adequate infrastructure such as parks and green areas, and the responsible use of technology, including active video games and the role of influencers on social networks, are presented as key elements to combat a sedentary lifestyle. Conclusions: It is important to highlight the importance of establishing socio-educational programs that adopt a comprehensive approach to promote physical activity in children and youth, highlighting the scientific evidence that supports the effectiveness of intervening in multiple scenarios. This review concludes that a coordinated approach between different actors (schools, families, communities) is necessary to ensure that children and youth reach adequate levels of physical activity, which not only improves their physical health, but also their mental well-being and cognitive development.
... Additionally, schoolyards should be planned and designed according to current research in order to serve as publicly accessible spaces for PA within neighbourhoods, also outside of school hours. A recent study on urban schoolyard play zone diversity and nature-based design features recommended similar design elements to those identified for PAfriendliness in this study, such as shade from trees and/or balance and climbing obstacles (Raney et al., 2023). ...
... On gender, results are mixed. Some studies observe behavioral differences between boys and girls (World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe 2017, Raney et al. 2023) or report less experience with nature among girls (Sugiyama et al. 2021), while others find no differences (Rupprecht et al. 2016). For children living with certain conditions, these play a major role (UNICEF 2018, Sefcik et al. 2019, Bozkurt 2021, Vidal and Castro Seixas 2022, for example autism spectrum condition (Refshauge et al. 2012, McAllister et al. 2022. ...
... Several studies highlight how small, local, or informal greenspaces are essential to complement larger ones: 'that is of course especially important for the children' (P2.10) (World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe 2012, Christian et al. 2015, Rupprecht et al. 2016, Freeman et al. 2021, Pedrosa et al. 2021, Osborne 2022. Regarding lay-out, people prefer open and landscaped greenspaces for children (Bell et al. 2003, Jansson et al. 2014, Lestan et al. 2014, Sonti et al. 2020, Talal and Santelmann 2021, Raney et al. 2023, compartmentalized in various inter-connected areas (UNICEF 2018, McAllister et al. 2022, Vidal and Castro Seixas 2022. ...
... Children dedicate value to vegetation (World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe 2016, 2017, UNICEF 2018, Pedrosa et al. 2021), and biodiversity has 'value as well' (P1.1). The local climate may make a greenspace more suitable, e.g. with shade (Refshauge et al. 2012, Huang et al. 2020, Raney et al. 2023, and without environmental pollution: 'air pollution, water appropriateness, and so on' (P1.5). During the workshops, attractive soundscapes were mentioned: 'the idea of that a place is also characterized by the acoustics, if you have a spring water, it has an acoustic, traffic roads is another, acoustic birds in the park' (P1.3). ...
... Green schoolyards are being developed in a context of blatant urban green gaps (Van Velzen and Helbich 2023, Łaszkiewicz and Sikorska, 2020), and therefore reflect the stark inequalities in the availability and accessibility of natural/ized areas between multi-ethnic, working-class neighbourhoods and urban territories inhabited by middle-class and well-off residents (Baró et al., 2021;Bohnert et al., 2021;Bates et al., 2018). The visible features of schoolyards, (such as the fact that tree cover in disadvantaged schools is roughly half, or less, of those serving white, well-off students (Kuo et al., 2018) also reflect the less-visible participation and decision-making processes associated with schoolgrounds' development (Raney et al., 2023;Zhang et al., 2022;Bates et al., 2018). ...
... Flax et al. (Flax et al., 2020), Giezen and Pellerey, (Giezen and Pellerey, 2021), (van Dijk-Wesselius et al., 2021), Muela et al. (Muela et al., 2019), Kreutz et al. (Kreutz et al., 2018), Jansson et al. (Jansson et al., 2018), Derr and Rigolon, (Derr and Rigolon, 2017), Maas et al. ( Maas et al., 2014) (Van Velzen and Helbich 2023; Raney et al., 2023;Zhang et al., 2022;Giezen and Pellerey, 2021;Bikomeye et al., 2021;Bohnert et al., 2021;Baro et al. 2021;Stevenson et al., 2020;Kuo et al., 2018;Bates et al. 2016;Garwood et al., 2016;Dyment and Bell, 2008) Inclusive ...
... Stakeholders' support for, and legitimization of, the actors that carry out the transformation project contributes to its endurance and sustainability (Giezen and Pellerey, 2021;Maas et al., 2014 et al., 2014). Next, the (potential) role of nature-based schoolyards in addressing green space accessibility and availability in the city is a thematic thread mostly discussed in the academic literature with relatively scant mention in policy documents (Van Velzen and Helbich 2023; Raney et al., 2023;Zhang et al., 2022;Baró et al., 2021;Bates et al., 2016). Finally, the discussion on the contribution of green schoolyards to neighbourhood cohesion and addressing the challenges of health-related pandemics (Quinn and Russo, 2022;Flax et al., 2020;Stevenson et al., 2020) also present in the literature, though relatively scarcely. ...
... 140 ) Features of green schoolyards that promote physical activity include separately demarcated play areas (as opposed to a single continuous space), shade trees, and equipment for climbing and balancing. 141 Of note, green schoolyards can double as community parks when school is not in session, if schools execute joint use agreements with city park departments. ...
... 181 Evidence suggests that schoolyard features including ample grassy fields, less crowding, shade from trees, and distinct play zones are associated with more physical activity. 141 Older adults face several challenges when spending time in nature, including uneven and rough walkways, risk of falls, cognitive decline, dehydration and safety concerns. A systematic review of older adults' preferences for parks and open space found that needs included more seating options, agefriendly programming, clean rest rooms and easily navigable paths. ...
Physical activity is a well-known behavior for promoting health and preventing a variety of chronic diseases. Despite widespread knowledge of the benefits of physical activity, most Americans do not engage in sufficient physical activity. Over the past decade, there has been increasing recognition of the health benefits of spending time in nature, mediated in part through physical activity. This has led to new partnerships across health, parks and recreation, public lands, and environmental organizations to increase time spent, and physical activity, in natural settings. This review assesses the current evidence around physical activity in natural settings (PANS), strategies for promoting PANS including health professional engagement, and current gaps in the research literature.
... This lack of activity among girls in outdoor spaces is also influenced by traditional schoolyards that are more oriented toward sports. This creates a lack of diversity in the play areas, which decreases the opportunities for girls to be more active in play [25]. ...
Playing at recess time in school gives a lot of benefits for children in both physical and social aspects, such as supporting physical, health, and cognitive improvement, and enhancing their learning motivation. Moreover, the outdoor school environment helps to bring back the children’s health condition after the pandemic event that has led to health problems such as obesity and screen fatigue. The physical layout of Indonesian public elementary schools is intended to offer children a learning and playing environment. However, many outdoor school environments are not specifically designed to facilitate children’s play. This study was undertaken at SDN Mendungan 2 to determine how children use outdoor areas in public elementary schools as play spaces during recess time using behavior mapping approach. The results demonstrate that boys tend towards being more active than girls and children with younger age demonstrate play more than the older. Furthermore, results show characteristics of outdoor play spatial characteristics areas used by children in specific play types and are important toward children’s health, growth, and development.
... The American Academy of Pediatrics supports recess and play as important for peer interactions and for acquiring lifelong skills of communication, cooperation, and coping as foundations for healthy development [6]. The physical environmental features of the schoolyard and recess programming, such as adult supervision and adult-led activities, as well as child characteristics, may contribute to children's PA and social interactions [7][8][9]. Prior studies of recess interventions suggest that portable equipment such as balls and jump ropes, playground markings, and playground markings associated with physical structures increase children's PA during recess times [10,11]. The role of supervising adults in associations with children's PA during recess has been mixed. ...
... Nature elements in these schoolyards prior to renovation were limited to grassy areas intended for sports activities. Other studies suggest that non-linear shaped grassy areas interspersed with trees and zones with natural features such as rocks and logs promote both higher use of those schoolyard zones by children as well as more PA [7]. Future work after schoolyard renovations can investigate changes in PA, prosocial behavior, and nature contact as well as changes in community use of schoolyard parks associated with the schoolyard greening to further inform both design and programming in schoolyards to promote health behaviors. ...
Background
The schoolyard environment provides key opportunities to promote physical activity and socioemotional development for children. Schoolyards can also serve as a community park resource outside of school hours. We aimed to: (i) implement and evaluate reliability of the System for Observing Outdoor Play Environments in Neighborhood Schools (SOOPEN), (ii) assess schoolyard use by children during recess and community members of all ages outside of school hours, and (iii) investigate relationships of schoolyard and children´s group characteristics with physical activity levels and prosocial interactions.
Methods
In this cross-sectional study, we observed student and community visitor behavior using SOOPEN at three urban elementary schoolyards in Tacoma, Washington, USA, prior to renovations intended to expand each facility’s use as a community park in neighborhoods with poor park access. We assessed interrater reliability using intraclass correlation coefficients and described current levels of schoolyard use (at the group level), physical activity, and prosocial behavior. Physical activity was assessed on a five-point scale and dichotomized to indicate moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Social interactions were coded as prosocial, antisocial, or neutral. We examined associations of selected schoolyard features and group characteristics with group MVPA and prosocial behavior during recess using modified Poisson regression to estimate prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).
Results
We observed a total of 981 activity-defined, informal groups in the schoolyards, and achieved good to excellent interrater reliability using SOOPEN. Community use of the schoolyards during evenings and weekends was limited (n = 56 groups). During 26, 25–50 min recess periods (n = 833 groups), 19% of groups were engaged in MVPA. Schoolyard areas with paved surfaces were associated with more MVPA (PR = 1.52, 95% CI: 1.04, 2.23) compared to field/grass areas; supervised groups were associated with less MVPA than groups not directly supervised by an adult (PR = 0.59, 95% CI: 0.36, 0.96). Schoolyard characteristics were not associated with prosocial behavior. Mixed-gender groups were associated with more MVPA and more prosocial behavior.
Conclusions
Our study using SOOPEN, a reliable new activity observation tool, highlights the multi-dimensional dynamics of physical activity and social interactions in schoolyards, which could be leveraged to promote healthy behaviors during and outside of school hours.
... A growing literature on the health benefits of greener environments suggests that physical activity/play, air quality, sleep, and social behaviors are intertwined pathways that may protect against excess weight gain as well as promote psychological well-being and learning [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12], hence the necessity of this work. Long term, programs like the Little Rock Green Schoolyard Initiative may improve health equity because the neighborhoods surrounding these schools are disproportionately affected by cardiometabolic conditions linked to inadequate physical activity and obesity. ...
Background
Evidence suggests that access to green schoolyards may facilitate vigorous play and lead to increased physical activity, which could lead to improved academic outcomes and reduce excess childhood weight gain. Greener schoolyards can also provide additional outdoor amenities that help the community at large. The Little Rock Green Schoolyard Initiative, a program aiming to promote outdoor learning and play in two of the city’s community schools, provides a natural experiment to evaluate the role of such interventions. This article presents the protocols and study plans that will be used to evaluate this community-led initiative on several outcomes including physical activity, sleep quality, use of schoolgrounds, and perceptions of the school environment. Administrative datasets will be used to assess exposure to green schoolyard improvements on academic achievement, attendance, and disciplinary referrals during elementary school.
Methods
Data will be gathered in two community schools where the green schoolyard improvements are taking place and in two demographically-matched comparison schools located elsewhere within the Little Rock School District. Data will be collected before, during, and after the green schoolyard improvements go into effect. Physical activity and sleep quality will be measured using actigraphy. Physical activity will also be assessed through direct playground observations during recess and outside of school hours. During the final year of the study, administrative data will be assembled and evaluated using difference-in-differences estimation and synthetic controls, two causal inference methods from the program evaluation literature.
Discussion
The study is designed to provide new insights into the design, implementation, and evaluation of playgrounds among schoolchildren, especially those who are at risk of developing severe obesity during their elementary school years. The research herein will develop empirical data, elucidate potential mechanisms, and practical experience for future study, policymaking, and health services.
