1. Introduction
Physical activity during childhood is important for physical and mental health [
1,
2,
3]. However, previous research has found that the level of physical activity in children has decreased over the last several decades in numerous industrial countries [
4]. Therefore, the promotion of physical activity among children is an important public health challenge.
To promote physical activity among children, various interventions have been conducted at the home, community, and school levels [
5]. In particular, the school has been identified as one of the key settings for promoting physical activity of children [
6], because children spend the greater part of their days at school. In contrast to physical education classes or after-school hours, recess could be an ideal opportunity for promoting daily physical activity [
7]. In Japan, recess is scheduled every day, and the same duration is provided for all children. Recently, recess has been shown to contribute up to 40% of daily physical activity recommendations [
8]. In addition, a threshold of 40% of physical activity during recess has been proposed for children [
9]. However, the proportion of time spent in moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity during recess was recently found to be only 18% among Japanese children [
10]. According to previous studies conducted in other countries, the proportion of time spent in moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity during morning and lunch recess was reported to be 32.1% in boys and 23.7% in girls in France [
11] and 32.9% in boys and 25.3% in girls in England [
12]. Compared to these studies, the levels of physical activity observed during school recess are low in Japan. Thus, effective recess-time strategies to promote physical activity among children must be identified.
Recent evidence has indicated that the environment affects physical activity among children [
13]. Previous studies in Europe and Australia found that recess physical activity was associated with aspects of the school physical environment, such as large play space [
14], adequate equipment [
14,
15,
16,
17,
18,
19,
20], and playground marking [
19,
21,
22]. In addition, playground-related environmental interventions such as equipment provision, multicolor marking, and clear division by activity type have been reported to be effective in promoting physical activity during recess [
23,
24,
25,
26,
27]. These studies have also found that gender differences play a role in the effectiveness of the interventions. This suggests that it may be important to focus on the association between perceived environment and recess physical activity separately by gender when considering effective strategies for promoting physical activity during recess in order to understand environmental factors that should be addressed differently for boys and girls.
Haug
et al. [
28] suggest that the physical environment factors that affect physical activity during recess differ by culture or lifestyle of countries, however most previous research has been conducted outside Japan. In a previous study, Lee
et al. [
29] pointed out that, even if the objectively measured actual environmental factors were the same, physical activity varied depending on the perception of these environmental factors by the people involved who carried out these measurements subjectively. However, school environments were evaluated by the researcher, principal, or teachers [
19,
21]. Their perceptions may not be always matched with those of children; therefore, the association between recess physical activity and perceived school environment in Japan must be confirmed. Investigating the association between children’s own evaluation of their perceived environments and recess physical activity would enable the identification of those environmental factors that should be the focus of efforts to promote physical activity during recess time, which offers daily opportunities for children to engage in physical activity. The present study examines the association of perceived school environment with the level of physical activity during recess among Japanese elementary school children.
4. Discussion
The present study investigated the effect of perceived school environment on physical activity during recess among elementary school children. Boys who perceived school equipment for physical activity to be good engaged in more moderate physical activity during lunch recess. Moreover, boys who perceived that the school had good facilities for physical activity engaged in higher vigorous physical activity and less sedentary time during lunch recess. Similarly, girls who perceived the school facilities for physical activity to be good spent longer time in moderate and vigorous physical activity during their morning recess. Girls who perceived school equipment for physical activity to be good engaged in light physical activity for a shorter duration. The present results revealed which environmental factors should be addressed in order to promote physical activity in recess time, which offers daily opportunities for children to engage in physical activity. Moreover, physical activity during recess differs by gender according to perceived school environment. In order to promote physical activity during recess more effectively, working to increase perception of equipment and facilities may be important for boys during lunch recess, and to increase perception of facilities may be important for girls during morning recess.
Previous research has indicated that play equipment available at school is related to children’s physical activity during recess times [
13,
32]. Previous studies have found that a larger proportion of students participated in moderate physical activity during recess when fixed play equipment was provided [
19,
21,
28,
33], and that the number of permanent play devices in the playground was positively associated with the amount of physical activity [
34]. The present study demonstrated that boys who perceived school equipment to be good engaged in more moderate physical activity during lunch recess, which supports the findings of previous studies. However, girls who perceived school equipment to be good spent less time in light physical activity during lunch recess. While previous research has demonstrated gender differences regarding certain characteristics of recess physical activity [
18,
35], there may also be gender differences in regard to equipment preferences. Moreover, girls who perceived school equipment to be good spent a long time being sedentary during lunch recess, though this was not significant. The reason for this is unclear. However, in order to reduce sedentary time, it may be effective to engage in efforts to improve perceptions regarding school equipment, and then assess whether sedentary time increases or decreases, as a result. If perceptions regarding school equipment are found to increase sedentary time, then it may be beneficial to focus on school environment factors other than those perceptions. However, the physical activity differences observed between the high and low perceived equipment groups is small. In Japan, recess time is provided daily to all children as an opportunity for them to engage in physical activity. This means that, although the time spent in physical activity between the high and low perceived equipment groups is short, it may add up to a major time difference. Further research is needed to determine gender equipment preferences and how these influence physical activity during recess.
Regardless of gender, children who perceived school facilities for physical activity to be good were more physically active during recess, especially vigorous physical activity. This finding partly supports previous research. In the present study, facility perceptions were assessed from questions regarding the “size” and “usability” of school grounds or gymnasium. Ridgers
et al. [
14] showed that as play space per child increased, time spent being sedentary decreased and vigorous physical activity increased. This positive association was also found in another study [
36]. Willenberg
et al. [
19] observed that bitumen areas with markings/goals and play lines were associated with a higher proportion of active children than those without. Previous British and Australian studies have also found that multicolor markings and division by activity type were effective in increasing physical activity during recess among elementary children [
16,
24,
27]. Such court markings or field lines may be one important aspect that influences the “usability” of school grounds among children. Moreover, other factors such as school policy or ground surface conditions can also affect “usability.” However, although the existence of court markings and field lines may enable children themselves to choose physical activity, school policy is not a matter that lies within their jurisdiction. If it is deemed necessary to improve the perception of usability in order to promote physical activity during children’s recess time, therefore, it may be important to focus on matters that lie within the scope of children’s own choices. The present results show that environment interventions to enhance perception of “usability” and “size” would be effective in promoting physical activity during recess. For example, effective utilization of spaces by line marking or area division can potentially enhance the perceptions of “usability” and “size” even without changing the physical size of school grounds or gymnasium.
There were no differences in physical activity according to the perception of safety between genders. This finding implies that for both boys and girls, perceptions of school safety and maintenance may have a minimal impact on physical activity during recess. Previous studies have conceptualized “safety” in terms of play space size, teacher supervision, and surface type (grass or bitumen, soft or hard) [
19,
36]. As a result, some of these variables were identified as factors that promote physical activity. However, most environmental variables, including safety variables, have been assessed by researchers or teachers, and no studies have explored how children’s perceptions of the school environment are associated with their physical activity during recess. Therefore, it might not be easy to compare the present data with previous findings. The inclusion of multiple factors of “safety” may partly explain the weak association between safety factors and physical activity during recess. For instance, Parrish
et al. [
37] asked children and teachers about how school environment affected physical activity during recess, and both believed that children who are lightweight or have fundamental movement skills lower than those of their peers do not want to join games, owing to bullying. Therefore, “safety” may involve not only the currently studied variables but also social environment factors (e.g., teacher supervision and school policy), interpersonal factors (e.g., self-efficacy, activity preference, fundamental activity skills, and clothes), and weather. Additional research is needed to explore the association between various understandings of “safety” and physical activity.
In the present study, children who perceived the school equipment and facilities to be good were physically active. The relationship between school facilities, equipment, and physical activity may be bi-directional; children who seek out activity opportunities are more aware of the available equipment and other facilities. This finding suggests that an approach focused on improving equipment and facilities would be effective in increasing physical activity among children. However, environment factors associated with physical activity did not have the same impact for boys and girls, or during morning recess and lunch recess times. This observed difference could be explained by the theory that boys and girls use space and time differently; other research has found that boys spend more time engaging in sport and competition with a larger group, using extensive space, whereas girls consider recess an opportunity to socialize and engage in sedentary play in smaller groups [
38]. Gender differences associated with school environment factors and physical activity during recess may have resulted from gender preferences in the type of activity contents. There were differences in the amount of physical activity among boys during lunch recess and girls during morning and lunch recess, depending on the school environment. This gender difference could be due to the different duration of lunch and morning recess, at 15 min and 25 min, respectively. This means that the children engage in different types of activity. Since different types of activity involve the use of different equipment and facilities, the observed gender difference may have stemmed from variations in the perception of these school environments. The present study is the first study to investigate differences in recess physical activity according to perceived school environment among Japanese elementary school children, and the strength of present study is that it has considered children’s subjective perceptions of their school environment.
Some limitations of the current study should be considered. First, the analysis was cross-sectional, thereby precluding causal inference. Second, the present study used an accelerometer with an epoch of 2 min. This accelerometer was only capable of measurements for 2-min epochs. A short epoch is strongly recommended for the measurement of children’s physical activity as such activity is often intermittent [
39]. Therefore, the amount of sedentary time and vigorous physical activity might be underestimated, while light and moderate physical activity might be overestimated. Finally, the sample was small as children from only two schools participated, and therefore, the present study might have a limited generalizability. Despite these limitations, the present study is meaningful as it is the first to indicate differences in physical activity during recess as being associated with perceived school environment among Japanese children. The present data can be used to inform interventions for promoting physical activity in Japanese children during recess.
