Neighborhood and developmental differences in children's perceptions of opportunities for play and physical activity
Section snippets
Developmental ecological perspective
One increasingly popular approach to understanding the influence of the environment on physical activity has been to use various types of ecological models (Davidson and Birch, 2001; Garcia Bengoechea and Johnson, 2000; Spence and Lee, 2003). These models represent adaptations of Bronfenbrenner, 1977, City of Edmonton, 2005; Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 1998). Within this theory it is hypothesized that social systems are ecological influences that play a significant role in children's
Neighborhoods
Children were recruited from two different elementary schools located in two neighborhoods in the city of Edmonton, Alta., Canada. One school was located in an older grid-style neighborhood (see Fig. 1). The other school was located in a newer lollipop-style neighborhood (see Fig. 2). To determine if a difference in walkability existed between the two neighborhoods, we calculated an index of walkability (Frank et al., 2006) for all neighborhoods in Edmonton. Specifically, with the aid of Arc
Thematic analysis
Images drawn to describe places in their neighborhoods where children could play and be physically active were coded into eight themes which are described below:
Play in home/yard: This theme reflected images relating to the child's home or yard. It included images that depicted general structural features of the immediate home environment (i.e., My house, My yard, Fence, Friend's house, Neighbor's house); images of children playing with objects in back or front yards (i.e., Playhouse,
Discussion
The first objective of this study was to compare the mental representations of places to play and be physically active in the neighborhood among children from an H-W and an L-W neighborhood. We observed differences with regard to active/non-active transportation. Travel between destinations is a central concept in Krizek et al.'s (2004) schematic of community design and youth physical activity. That is, they decomposed their model into time spent in travel and time spent in destinations.
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