Environmental Physical Activity Cues and Children’s Active vs. Sedentary Recreation

Amanda N. Spitzer, Katrina Oselinsky, Rachel G. Lucas-Thompson and Dan J. Graham
Additional contact information
Amanda N. Spitzer: Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
Katrina Oselinsky: Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
Rachel G. Lucas-Thompson: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
Dan J. Graham: Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 3, 1-12

Abstract: Physical activity (PA) benefits health, and intensive environmental modifications can increase children’s PA. Research has not yet addressed if subtle environmental cues, such as posters depicting PA, increase child PA. In the current study, it was hypothesized that children exposed to active posters (vs. nature posters) would spend a larger proportion of free play time engaging with active toys (relative to sedentary toys). Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions in which posters on a laboratory wall depicted 1. People being active, or 2. Nature scenes. Children aged 5–10 years (N = 175) could play with up to eight toys (four active, four sedentary) while parents completed study-related surveys. The proportion of playtime that was active was compared between groups. Poster type did not have a significant effect on proportion of active playtime. Previous environmental interventions that increase children’s PA have done so through enhancing access to active opportunities, rather than via signage. It is possible that poster interventions such as this may not influence children’s PA, or perhaps other types of cues would have been more effective. Future research should investigate subtle environmental cues that match both the target audience and the accessible PA options (e.g., posters depicting children playing with available active toys) and explore other low-investment environmental modifications to boost children’s PA.

Keywords: physical activity; children; physical environment; priming; active play; signage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/3/1874/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/3/1874/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:3:p:1874-:d:744099

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().