Abstract
Objectives
The goal of this study was to investigate socio-demographic and contextual factors in relation to the frequency of outdoor play in the neighbourhood in early childhood, drawing from a large sample of children in British Columbia, Canada.
Methods
Parents/caregivers of 2280 4- to 5-year-old children completed the Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (CHEQ) in 2018. Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to predict the likelihood of children participating in everyday outdoor play in their neighbourhood based on the child’s gender, family ethnicity (i.e., European origin vs. other), household income (i.e., less vs. equal/more than CDN$75,000), population centre (i.e., urban vs. rural) and parent’s trust in neighbours (i.e., trusting vs. not trusting neighbours to look out for children).
Results
Thirty-five percent of children in this study met recommendations of playing outdoors every day. Children whose parents perceived strong trust in neighbours were twice as likely to play outdoors in their neighbourhood every day, when compared with those whose parents perceived low trust in neighbours. Additionally, children from families with higher incomes (equal/more than $75,000) were significantly more likely to play outdoors daily than those with lower incomes, but only if they resided in rural areas. Last, children with European family backgrounds were 64% more likely to play outdoors every day compared with those with non-European backgrounds.
Conclusion
Findings from this study contribute to an emerging body of work examining socio-economic, demographic and contextual factors associated with children meeting the recommendations for everyday outdoor play in their neighbourhood.
Résumé
Objectifs
Le but de la présente étude était d’étudier les facteurs sociodémographiques et contextuels liés à la fréquence de jeu en plein air dans le quartier pendant la petite enfance, à partir d’un vaste échantillon d’enfants de la Colombie-Britannique, au Canada.
Méthodes
Les responsables de 2 280 enfants de quatre à cinq ans ont rempli le Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (CHEQ) en 2018. Des analyses de régression logistique binaire ont été effectuées pour prédire la probabilité que les enfants participent à des jeux extérieurs quotidiens en fonction du genre de l’enfant, de l’origine ethnique de la famille (c.-à-d. origine européenne ou autre), du revenu du foyer (c.-à-d. inférieur ou égal/supérieur à 75 000 $ CA), du centre de la population (c.-à-d. urbain ou rural) et de la confiance des parents envers les voisins (c.-à-d. confiance ou non dans les voisins pour veiller sur les enfants).
Résultats
Trente-cinq pour cent des enfants ont joué dehors au quotidien. Les enfants dont les parents ont perçu une forte confiance dans les voisins étaient deux fois plus probables de jouer dehors. De plus, les enfants issus de familles aux revenus plus élevés étaient nettement plus susceptibles de jouer dehors, mais seulement s’ils résidaient dans des régions rurales. Enfin, les enfants de familles européennes étaient 64 % plus probables de jouer dehors au quotidien.
Conclusion
Les résultats de cette étude contribuent à un nouveau corpus de recherches examinant les facteurs socio-économiques, démographiques et contextuels associés au jeu en plein air au quotidien pendant la petite enfance.
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Notes
We also conducted all subsequent analyses with income as a continuous variable; our results did not differ from those we found with income as a dichotomous variable.
We also conducted all subsequent analyses with outdoor play as a continuous variable; our results did not differ from those we found with outdoor play as a dichotomous variable.
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Funding
The study was supported by the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada (F18-04482).
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Ethical approval to conduct this study was granted by the University of British Columbia’s Behavioural Research Ethics Board (H19 01043).
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Parent, N., Guhn, M., Brussoni, M. et al. Social determinants of playing outdoors in the neighbourhood: family characteristics, trust in neighbours and daily outdoor play in early childhood. Can J Public Health 112, 120–127 (2021). https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-020-00355-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-020-00355-w
Keywords
- Outdoor play
- Early childhood
- Social determinants of health
- Neighbourhood social cohesion
- Family income
- Rural/urban