The examination of the factors influencing the time for outdoor play in children
1986 Volume 6 Issue 1 Pages 1-12
Details
1986 Volume 6 Issue 1 Pages 1-12
The annual change of the time for outdoor play of elementary school children (the 5th and 6th grades) was analyzed, and also the factors influencing it were investigated. The surveys (question-naires) were carried out 4 times for 11years (1971, 1973, 1980, 1981). Total subjects in number were about 4, 000 elementary school children of the 5th and 6th grades in Osaka Prefecture. Outstanding findings are as follows.
1) The time for outdoor play of elementary school children had been gradually decreasing during 11 years from 1971 to 1981.
2) Boys have been likely to play longer outdoors than girls.
3) Differences in outdoor playtime among the residential areas depend strongly on such factors as the time, the space, and the group.
4) There was a big gap between the actual playtime enjoyed by children and the time desired. This gap (about 2 hours) suggested that there exist sevral limitations to reduce their playtime.
5) The length of the time for outdoor play, indoor play, and T. V. watching have approximately the same tendency; the time for playing outdoors and for T. V. watching increased with increase of the time for playing outdoors.
6) The percentage of the children attending the “Juku” (cram schools for junior high school entrance examinations and other schools for skill subjects) have reached 80 percent. Such an increasing number of the participants is the main factor of reducing the total length of playtime (outdoor play, indoor play, and T. V. watching). In fact, outdoor, playtime of the attendants of the Juku was remarkably less than that of non-attendants.
7) The larger the number of play group is, the longer the outdoor playtime gets.
8) We consider that the children who do not want to play outdoors are produced by 1) such external limiting factors as “study”, “playmates”, and “playground”, and 2) the internal factor (the tendency to avoid outdoor play) in which the interaction of the external limiting factors resulted.
9) It was recognized that the participation in the Juku, the play group, and the subjective attitude to play were certain robust limiting factors to the time for outdoor play of children.
