The effect of outdoor activity context on physical activity in preschool children

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis

Department

Psychology

ISSN

0021-8855

Volume

45

Issue

2

DOI

10.1901/jaba.2012.45-401

First Page

401

Last Page

405

Publication Date

Summer 2012

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to develop and test a method for assessing the effect of outdoor activity context on level of physical activity in preschool children. The Observational System for Recording Physical Activity in Children was used to define the test conditions and various levels of physical activity within a multielement design. In general, all participants were fairly sedentary during the analysis. The fixed playground equipment condition produced the most moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, a finding that does not correspond to the descriptive assessment literature on childhood physical activity.

Comments

This study is based on a thesis submitted by the first author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the MA degree at the University of the Pacific. We thank Barbara Beavers of Garden of Eden day care for her assistance and cooperation. We also thank Carolynn Kohn and Darrin Kitchen for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Share

COinS