The home electronic media environment and parental safety concerns: relationships with outdoor time after school and over the weekend among 9\u201311\xa0year old children

Hannah J Wilkie,Sean P Cumming,Fiona B Gillison,Martyn Standage,Peter T Katzmarzyk

doi:10.1186/s12889-018-5382-0

Abstract

BackgroundTime spent outdoors is associated with higher physical activity levels among children, yet it may be threatened by parental safety concerns and the attraction of indoor sedentary pursuits. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between these factors and outdoor time during children’s discretionary periods (i.e., after school and over the weekend).MethodsData from 462 children aged 9–11 years old were analysed using generalised linear mixed models. The odds of spending > 1 h outdoors after school, and > 2 h outdoors on a weekend were computed, according to demographic variables, screen-based behaviours, media access, and parental safety concerns. Interactions with sex and socioeconomic status (SES) were explored.ResultsBoys, low SES participants, and children who played on their computer for < 2 h on a school day had higher odds of spending > 1 h outside after school than girls, high SES children and those playing on a computer for ≥2 h, respectively. Counterintuitive results were found for access to media devices and crime-related safety concerns as both of these were positively associated with time spent outdoors after school. A significant interaction for traffic-related concerns*sex was found; higher road safety concerns were associated with lower odds of outdoor time after school in boys only. Age was associated with weekend outdoor time, which interacted with sex and SES; older children were more likely to spend > 2 h outside on weekends but this was only significant among girls and high SES participants.ConclusionsOur results suggest that specific groups of children are less likely to spend their free time outside, and it would seem that only prolonged recreational computer use has a negative association with children’s outdoor time after school. Further research is needed to explore potential underlying mechanisms, and parental safety concerns in more detail.

Highlights

Time spent outdoors is associated with higher physical activity levels among children, yet it may be threatened by parental safety concerns and the attraction of indoor sedentary pursuits
Outdoor time after school socioeconomic status (SES), media access, and crime-related safety concerns were associated with outdoor time after school in the simple models (Table 2)
Sex and time spent on a computer on a school day were significantly associated with time outdoors after school in the mutually adjusted model

Summary

Introduction

Time spent outdoors is associated with higher physical activity levels among children, yet it may be threatened by parental safety concerns and the attraction of indoor sedentary pursuits. Time spent outdoors has consistently been associated with higher physical activity levels, [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] and in a recent position statement, put forward by Tremblay and colleagues, [8] active outdoor play in the natural environment was recognised as a fundamental component of children’s health and development. According to qualitative data, [15, 16] previously reported barriers to outdoor play have included safety concerns, a lack of time, and greater pressure on academic study, as well as access to digital entertainment in the home. The authors concluded that the effect is unlikely to be clinically relevant [19]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion