Eine längere Spielzeit im Freien bei Kindern im Alter zwischen 2 und 4 Jahren ist mit einem geringeren Risiko für emotionale und Verhaltensschwierigkeiten in der späteren Kindheit verbunden, wobei jeder zusätzliche Spieltag pro Woche die Wahrscheinlichkeit gesunder psychischer Symptome bis zum Alter von 8 Jahren um 6–14 % erhöht.
More outdoor play during preschool years linked to better mental health later in childhood
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>Researchers analysed data from 4,151 children from the Growing Up in Scotland cohort dataset and looked at symptoms of mental health when children were aged four, five, six, and eight years old. This included externalising symptoms – which are problem behaviours such as aggression, impulsivity and hyperactivity – and internalising symptoms such as anxiety and depression.
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>The research found those who played outdoors more frequently at ages two, three and four were more likely to remain in a low-symptom, good mental health group through to middle childhood. Specifically, the results showed that for each additional day that a child plays outdoors in a typical week during the preschool years, the odds of that child having a healthy profile of mental health symptoms through to age eight increases by between six and 14 per cent.
> To isolate the effect of outdoor play, the researchers controlled for a range of other related variables including child sex, ethnicity, highest education level within household, number of physical conditions that the child experiences, working status of parents, and whether the family had access to a park within ten minutes of home and/or access to a garden.
[Early outdoor play predicts trajectories of child mental health in a population‐based cohort – Dodd – Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry – Wiley Online Library](https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcpp.70175)
I’m pleased to see they’ve controlled for parental mental health, that makes a lot of sense. I’m quite surprised they’ve not chose to control for screen time as well given the volume of evidence reporting negative effects in pre-school children having a lasting impact.
I am really annoyed that they don’t say what was the average number of days spent outside. I even tried to read the paper but it was so convolutedthat i gave up. If anyone can tell me how many days is average, you’ll be my hero!
Unsurprising, but good to see solid evidence for it.
It makes little sense to me that they’ve controlled for access to gardens or parks (especially as they already control for income/class etc in other ways). They’re likely controlling away a lot of the variance here, as these things are necessary to be able to play outside. They should at least report with and without this. The effect they find would likely be larger still if they didn’t control for this.