Pawlowski Charlotte Skau, Tjørnhøj-Thomsen Tine, Schipperijn Jasper, Troelsen Jens
Research Unit for Active Living, Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense, M, Denmark.
BMC Public Health. 2014 Jun 23;14:639. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-14-639.
Many children, in particular girls, do not reach the recommended amount of daily physical activity. School recess provides an opportunity for both boys and girls to be physically active, but barriers to recess physical activity are not well understood. This study explores gender differences in children's perceptions of barriers to recess physical activity. Based on the socio-ecological model four types of environmental barriers were distinguished: natural, social, physical and organizational environment.
Data were collected through 17 focus groups (at 17 different schools) with in total 111 children (53 boys) from fourth grade, with a mean age of 10.4 years. The focus groups included an open group discussion, go-along group interviews, and a gender segregated post-it note activity. A content analysis of the post-it notes was used to rank the children's perceived barriers. This was verified by a thematic analysis of transcripts from the open discussions and go-along interviews.
The most frequently identified barriers for both boys and girls were weather, conflicts, lack of space, lack of play facilities and a newly-found barrier, use of electronic devices. While boys and girls identified the same barriers, there were both inter- and intra-gender differences in the perception of these barriers. Weather was a barrier for all children, apart from the most active boys. Conflicts were perceived as a barrier particularly by those boys who played ballgames. Girls said they would like to have more secluded areas added to the school playground, even in large schoolyards where lack of space was not a barrier. This aligned with girls' requests for more "hanging-out" facilities, whereas boys primarily wanted activity promoting facilities.
Based on the results from this study, we recommend promoting recess physical activity through a combination of actions, addressing barriers within the natural, social, physical and organizational environment.
许多儿童，尤其是女孩，未达到建议的每日体育活动量。学校课间休息为男孩和女孩提供了进行体育活动的机会，但课间体育活动的障碍尚未得到充分了解。本研究探讨了儿童对课间体育活动障碍认知的性别差异。基于社会生态模型，区分了四种类型的环境障碍：自然环境、社会环境、物理环境和组织环境。
通过17个焦点小组（在17所不同学校）收集数据，共有来自四年级的111名儿童（53名男孩）参与，平均年龄为10.4岁。焦点小组包括开放式小组讨论、随行小组访谈以及按性别分开的便利贴活动。对便利贴进行内容分析以对儿童感知到的障碍进行排名。这通过对开放式讨论和随行访谈的文字记录进行主题分析来验证。
男孩和女孩最常提及的障碍是天气、冲突、空间不足、缺乏游乐设施以及一个新发现的障碍——电子设备的使用。虽然男孩和女孩识别出了相同的障碍，但在对这些障碍的认知上存在性别间和性别内的差异。除了最活跃的男孩外，天气对所有儿童都是障碍。冲突尤其被那些进行球类游戏的男孩视为障碍。女孩表示她们希望在学校操场增加更多隐蔽区域，即使在空间充足的大校园里也是如此。这与女孩对更多“休闲”设施的需求一致，而男孩主要想要促进活动的设施。
基于本研究结果，我们建议通过一系列行动来促进课间体育活动，解决自然、社会、物理和组织环境中的障碍。
