Parents who want their children to be fit and active should be encouraging them to go out and play rather than telling them to exercise, a study of more than 200 children aged 4-12 years shows.
The researchers found that advertising campaigns using words such as ‘physical activity’ and ‘exercise’ to encourage young people to be active would have little meaning for them. Children do not have an interest in or understanding of the health benefits of physical activity, according to researcher Professor Wendy Schiller from the University of South Australia.
The South Australia Department of Human Services commissioned the research following concerns about the increasing levels of obesity, diabetes and physical inactivity in children.
“Our aim was to gain a deeper understanding of children’s ideas about physical activity, exercise, fitness, sport and play by determining the words and images that children associate with these activities,” Professor Schiller said.
“What came through very strongly in the study was that physical activity was an adult concept and most children only identified with play. It was the one activity that they thought they had ownership of, and had freedom in.”
The director of UniSA’s de Lissa Institute of Early Childhood and Family Studies, Professor Schiller is one of three key researchers in a multidisciplinary team that includes Dr Colin MacDougall from the School of Medicine at Flinders University and Professor Philip Darbyshire from the Department of Nursing and Midwifery at the Women and Children’s Hospital.
“What is different about this study is that, rather than have adults make decisions on behalf of children, we arranged to have the children’s voices heard by involving them in the research process,” Professor Schiller said.
Children from city and country schools were interviewed in groups, drew activity maps, and took photographs of activities - giving verbal, visual and expressive responses.
“What we discovered during our research was not to mix play and sport. Play is kids led, where children make, change and modify the rules and do what they want to do. Sport is adult led with rules that don’t change,” Dr MacDougall said.
“Sport was seen as being only for extremely talented children who had parental backing to drive them to sporting venues, and attend coaching clinics and auditions. That was a real surprise!” Dr MacDougall said.
“Other negatives for sport included very bad press about bullying, put downs and gender issues, with girls indicating that boys ganged up on them. The fear of injury was also a concern, with about eight per cent of children saying that injury was a barrier to playing sport. This fear may stem from images of players being injured during sport. Having to rely on transportation was another barrier highlighted in the drawings, which showed sporting venues situated at the end of long roads.
“When children play sports such as basketball under their own rules, it is classed as play. They modify rules so that younger children and those who are less fit can join in and feel OK about playing.