The 2011 ASHS Annual Conference

Research has found that free play is valuable to child development.  Children tend to use outdoor play areas in more physically active ways, and time spent outdoors relates positively to increased physical activity in children. However, children today are spending an increasing amount of time indoors rather than outdoors.  Recent research has shown that the amount of time children spend in outdoor play is directly related to parental concerns of their children being exposed to outdoor hazards.  The purpose of this project was to investigate parental preference for various play spaces including indoor and outdoor spaces with varying degree of artificial and natural elements.  The Parental Attitude toward Nature (PAN) and Parental Attitude toward Their Child’s Outdoor Recreation (PACOR) scales were used to estimate parental attitudes and compare them to ratings of various play spaces. Statistically significant results from this study indicated that parents preferred outdoor play spaces when compared to indoor play spaces and specifically those outdoor spaces that were constructed with more near-by natural components.  Statistically significant correlations linked PAN and PACOR scores with ratings of several play spaces indicating that parents who had higher scores on the PAN and the PACOR scales tended to prefer play areas with more natural elements and fewer artificial elements.  There was no relationship between the participants’ PAN and PACOR scores and their ratings of the indoor play areas.