Social determinants of playing outdoors in the neighbourhood: family characteristics, trust in neighbours and daily outdoor play in early childhood.

objectivesThe goal of this study was to investigate socio-demographic and contextual factors in relation to the frequency of outdoor play in the neighbourhood in early childhood, drawing from a large sample of children in British Columbia, Canada.

methodsParents/caregivers of 2280 4- to 5-year-old children completed the Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (CHEQ) in 2018. Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to predict the likelihood of children participating in everyday outdoor play in their neighbourhood based on the child's gender, family ethnicity (i.e., European origin vs. other), household income (i.e., less vs. equal/more than CDN$75,000), population centre (i.e., urban vs. rural) and parent's trust in neighbours (i.e., trusting vs. not trusting neighbours to look out for children).

resultsThirty-five percent of children in this study met recommendations of playing outdoors every day. Children whose parents perceived strong trust in neighbours were twice as likely to play outdoors in their neighbourhood every day, when compared with those whose parents perceived low trust in neighbours. Additionally, children from families with higher incomes (equal/more than $75,000) were significantly more likely to play outdoors daily than those with lower incomes, but only if they resided in rural areas. Last, children with European family backgrounds were 64% more likely to play outdoors every day compared with those with non-European backgrounds.

conclusionFindings from this study contribute to an emerging body of work examining socio-economic, demographic and contextual factors associated with children meeting the recommendations for everyday outdoor play in their neighbourhood.