Back to Search
Start Over
Nowhere to Go: Parents' Descriptions of Children's Physical Activity During a Global Pandemic
- Source :
- Frontiers in Public Health, Frontiers in Public Health, Vol 9 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- Background: Schools and outdoor public spaces play a substantial role in children's physical activity. Yet, the COVID-19 shelter-in-place mandates bound many children to their available home spaces for learning, movement, and development. The exact effect this mandate had on children's physical activity may vary among families.Objective: To understand, from the perspective of parents, how the COVID-19 shelter-in-place mandates affected children's physical activity, while also considering families' socioeconomic status.Design: Open-ended survey.Setting: Online.Method: Data were collected from 321 parents living in the United States of America. Parents answered an open-ended prompt to describe their children's physical activity during COVID-19 shelter-in-place mandates. Following data collection, inductive and deductive content analysis examined patterns in the data.Results: Analyses indicated that shelter-in-place mandates restricted children's opportunities for physical activity. However, if families had access to outdoor spaces or equipment, they could encourage and support more physical activity opportunities than those without. Families in the lower-income bracket had less access to outdoor space and subsequently those children had fewer opportunities to be physically active. Parents supported their children's physical activity through their involvement and encouragement.Conclusion: These findings underscore the importance of access to outdoor spaces and equipment for increasing children's physical activity. Findings can be used by educators and policymakers to equitably support families of lower socioeconomic status who reported less access to outdoor spaces.
- Subjects :
- Parents
Physical activity
030209 endocrinology & metabolism
Space (commercial competition)
Developmental psychology
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
children
Pandemic
Humans
030212 general & internal medicine
Child
Socioeconomic status
Exercise
Pandemics
Data collection
SARS-CoV-2
Perspective (graphical)
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
COVID-19
health
Brief Research Report
families
United States
Content analysis
active play
Mandate
Public Health
Public aspects of medicine
RA1-1270
Psychology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 22962565
- Volume :
- 9
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Frontiers in public health
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....773571163576fba1b5290197b67b372e