BACKGROUND:This abstract provides a brief blueprint for a doctoral thesis that is connected to the national doctoral program Sustainable movement education (SMOVE) and research project MoveEarly.
INTRODUCTION:There are overwhelming evidence for the numerous positive health benefits of physical activity (PA).1,2,3,4,5 Meanwhile, it is well known that PA-levels are insufficient in European and Swedish children alike.6,7,8 Insufficient PA-levels is a substantial societal challenge since being of concern to the immediate and future development, health and well-being of children9,10 as well as being of great economic burden to society11,12. Several policymakers, such as the World Health Organization (WHO),13 the Swedish public health agency and Swedish government14,15 highlights the importance of PA for enhancing health. Further, the Swedish school law16 and curriculum17, emphasizes a health promoting school system where preschools and schools are assigned to e.g., provide children with opportunities for daily movement as well as conditions for developing movement capabilities, enjoyment of movement and an interest to be physically active. The early childhood years, often defined as 0-5 years, is regarded as a central period for PA-promotion since being a period that is fundamental for the development of PA-behaviors, overall well-being and health18,19,20,21,22 as well being a period where young children can develop PA-behaviors that might track into adulthood23,24,25. For many Nordic children, much of their early childhood is spent in preschool, and in Sweden and Norway attendance is high, reaching >94% of 3-5 year-olds26,27 hence, it is important to investigate how to create an ECE-environment that produces enriched opportunities for movement, play, exploration and thus adequate PA. Already in 1996, Siedentop28 argued that effective PA-promotion must include a relationship between school, community, and family and that the school setting is the central point of this relationship, based on the discussion above, one could argue that today, the same goes for the preschool setting. Against this background, combined with the fact that the Swedish curriculum assigns preschools to work health promotive, the Nordic ECE is a setting well suited for PA-promotion, since it is a context encompassing most Nordic children at an age critical for their overall development and health.
METHODS:The overall aim for this doctoral thesis is to, 1) develop an environment rating scale (ERS) that aligns with the theories of Ecological dynamics (ED), Enriched environment (EE) as well as the constructs of movement, play and exploration in ECE and, 2) evaluate this ERS against outcome effects such as PA, physical fitness, sleep and cognitive tasks from a large-scale intervention in ECE.
To achieve this, four papers will be produced.I) a literature review on the topic of ERS in general, and on ERS in ECE specificallyII) method development of a new ERS that aligns with EE, ED, movement, play and explorationIII & IV) cross-sectional association studies investigating the associations of the newly developed ERS and outcome effects (e.g., PA and cognitive tasks) of pedagogical interventions in ECE, and
RESULTS:Tentatively, the result of this dissertation is expected to provide,
- an ERS-tool that is able to capture how ECE environments affords, and create opportunities for movement, play and exploration in preschool children and consequently increases PA in this group.
- a practical ERS-tool that practitioners within ECE can use to evaluate their own environment and how it relates to creating opportunities for children’s PA via movement, play and exploration.
- an overview of existing ERS-tools and their characteristics, e.g., validity, reliability, context, advantages and limitations.
- associations between the developed ERS-tool and outcome measures on child level such as total amount of PA, physical fitness, cognitive tasks and sleep.
- indications of effectiveness of the ERS-tool to promote PA and child development in ECE.
- guidance for future research connected to PA-promotion, and child development in ECE.
CONCLUSION:With individual, and public health advancements in mind, there is ample reason to enhance our understanding in the field. It is my hope that this dissertation will contribute to an ECE that advances children’s enjoyment of, and relation to, movement, learning and PA, both in an immediate and life-long perspective.
2023.
Physical Activity, Physical Activity Levels, Enriched Environment, Movement, Play, Exploration
SVEBI (Svensk Förening för Beteende- och Samhällsvetenskaplig Idrottsforskning) årlig idrottsvetenskaplig konferens, Göteborg, 23-24 november