An Investigation into Physical Activity Levels in Primary School Playgrounds

Abstract

Background: As children spend roughly 30 hours per week at school, the associated benefits of physical activity (PA) can be developed within physical education (PE) lessons, break times and after school activities. Therefore, the main aims of this investigation were to (i) investigate the differences between males and females PA levels across the tarmac area during lunch time, (ii) investigate the impact of staff/teacher supervision and (iii) to determine the effect of the weather on PA within the playground during lunch times and (iv) finally establish how pupils feel levels of PA could be increased during lunchtime.
Methods: A mixed methods approach was undertaken to explore children’s PA levels and the effect of gender, adult supervision and weather during school lunchtimes using n=132 participants aged 5-12 years. Moderate-to-vigorous (MPVA) PA levels were measured using systematic scans in 3 playground areas during 3 separate lunchtimes using an adapted version of McKenzie’s pro forma. Focus groups on n=16 pupils aged 7-11 years were conducted to help improve understanding of the effects of supervision and weather on PA, and how levels of PA can be increased.
Results: Paired sample t-tests results revealed that males were significantly more active in area one than area two (p=0.04) and females were significantly more active in area three than area one (p<0.01). Focus groups highlighted that supervisors made little impact upon PA, whilst hotter weather was reported to negatively affect PA levels, as children engaged in less activities to avoid sweating.
Conclusions: Overall males were observed to have higher levels of PA during the study, supervisors were important for health and safety but rarely encouraged PA and finally, participants claimed that they were less active when it was hotter.