Lee Jane J, Flouri Eirini, Jackson Yo
Child Maltreatment Solutions Network, Social Science Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA.
Institute of Education, Psychology and Human Development, University College London, London, UK.
Child Care Health Dev. 2025 Jan;51(1):e70020. doi: 10.1111/cch.70020.
Currently, the time children spend playing outdoors is at an all-time low. However, the existing literature suggests that outdoor play may have cognitive and emotional benefits for children.
The present study carried out a mediation analysis to explore whether amount and timing of outdoor play affects children's emotion regulation and whether working memory mediates these relations among 325 preschool children (M = 4.19, SD = 0.85) residing in a large Midwestern city in the United States.
Results showed that greater amounts of outdoor play very early (i.e., wake-up to noon) and very late (i.e., 6 PM to bedtime) in the day were related to greater emotional dysregulation. By contrast, greater amount of outdoor play from noon to 6 PM was related to lower emotional dysregulation. Importantly, the effect of amount of outdoor play from noon to 6 PM on emotion regulation was fully mediated by working memory.
The findings of the present study suggest that in early childhood outdoor play that supports children's circadian rhythms may have cognitive and, in turn, emotional benefits.
目前，儿童在户外玩耍的时间处于历史最低水平。然而，现有文献表明，户外玩耍可能对儿童的认知和情感有益。
本研究进行了一项中介分析，以探讨户外玩耍的时长和时间安排是否会影响儿童的情绪调节，以及工作记忆是否在325名居住在美国中西部一个大城市的学龄前儿童（M = 4.19，SD = 0.85）中调节这些关系。
结果显示，一天中非常早（即起床至中午）和非常晚（即下午6点至就寝时间）进行大量户外玩耍与更高的情绪失调有关。相比之下，中午至下午6点进行更多户外玩耍与更低的情绪失调有关。重要的是，中午至下午6点户外玩耍时长对情绪调节的影响完全由工作记忆介导。
本研究结果表明，在幼儿期，支持儿童昼夜节律的户外玩耍可能具有认知益处，进而带来情感益处。
