Abstract
This study aims to understand how children perceive their environment, exploring the affordances children perceive to influence their physical activity (PA) behaviour when outside. Participants included boys and girls aged 10–12 years (n = 15) living in Scotland. Children's visual and verbal representations of their perceived environment were analysed to assess environmental determinants of PA. The findings suggested that physical affordances that offer a sense of risk were important to children's play spaces. Social affordances influenced where the children went in their environment and the features they utilised as part of play behaviour; strangers were considered threatening depending on whether the activity was recognised.
Highlights
It is important to clarify what constitutes as physical activity (PA)
Affordances that are perceived by a child may not be similar to an adolescent or an adult, this study aimed to clarify what types of affordances attract children to outdoor locations
The data suggested that children perceived that the play equipment in most places was designed for younger children and ‘not meant for them’
Summary
It is important to clarify what constitutes as physical activity (PA). PA is generally defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscle that requires energy expenditure (Caspersen and others, 1985). Evidence suggests that less than 20 per cent of children in Scotland are not achieving the sufficient levels of PA for health (Reilly and others, 2014). Children who reach the recommended PA levels are less likely to suffer from acute health problems such as low cardiovascular fitness (Dunn and others, 1999), likelihood of being overweight (Ortega and others, 2013) and high levels of adiposity (Strong and others, 2005). Children who do not reach the recommended PA levels are more likely to suffer from chronic health problems such as diabetes (Liese and others, 2013), cardiovascular health risks, high blood pressure (Farpour-Lambert and others, 2009) and obesity (Pedersen and Saltin, 2006). Frequent PA has been shown to help improve psychological well-being as it can reduce stress, anxiety and depression (Dunn and others, 2001)
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