Youth Physical Activity During Semi-Structured Versus Unstructured School Recess

Background/Purpose: Nearly one in three children in the U.S. is classified as overweight or obese. Obesity can contribute too many health risks which can persist into adulthood.  Physical activity throughout the school day may help reduce the risk of childhood obesity. Specifically, recess is an opportunity where children can play in an environment that promotes creativity, social development, and physical activity. Structured recess is a unique approach to create more physical activity by allowing students’ opportunities to learn new games and provide all children regardless of ability, sex, etc. to be actively involved in play. Therefore the purpose of this present study was to compare the physical activity (step counts; minutes spent in MVPA) accumulated during semi-structured recess and traditional unstructured recess.

Method: Children from an elementary school in the Southwestern US (N = 165: 89 males; 56 third graders, 57 fourth graders, 52 fifth graders; 96 healthy BMI, 69 overweight or obese) wore a NL-1000 piezoelectric pedometer during their 15-minute lunch recess period for eight days. Children participated in their traditional unstructured recess for the first four days where there were no organized activities and limited equipment available. The following four days included semi-structured recess with a variety of organized activities such as basketball, tag, walking activities, and jump roping. Sport equipment was also made available for the students to participate in and use.

Analysis/Results: During unstructured recess, children accumulated 1028±356 steps and 4.59±2.2 minutes of MVPA compared to 1156±434 steps and 5.44±2.76 minutes of MVPA during semi-structured recess. Paired sample t-tests revealed that children took significantly more steps during semi-structured recess compared to unstructured recess (t = -4.98; p<0.05). Children spent significantly more time in MVPA during semi-structured recess compared to unstructured recess (t = -5.940; p<0.05).  Boys took significantly more steps and spent more time in MVPA during both types of recess than girls (p<0.05). Fourth and fifth graders overall, were more physically active (steps and MVPA) than third grades during the intervention.

Conclusions: Results imply that it is important for schools to consider creative, semi-structured recess opportunities to increase step counts and time in MVPA and reinforce recess as an important component of a comprehensive school physical activity program.  Our results also support the importance of daily recess while children attend school.