Children and Youth Movement and Outdoor Play Behaviours

COVID-19 Research Area(s): Mental Health & Wellbeing

The 2020 COVID-19 outbreak has led to significant changes in daily life for children and families, including how Canadian children and youth engage in play and recreation, in time spent indoors and outdoors, and in the relative composition of all movement behaviours. Most children are no longer attending school, with classroom lessons replaced by homeschool and online learning activities. Restrictions have been put into place to limit community gatherings, team sports, playground use, and physical interactions, amongst others. The purpose of this secondary data analysis is to assess the immediate changes (i.e., mid-COVID-19 crisis) in the movement behaviours of Canadian children and youth in response to COVID-19 and related restrictions; This is secondary data analysis. ParticipACTION, a Canadian non-profit organization promoting physical activity, commissioned a third-party market research company, Maru/Matchbox, to conduct an online survey using its consumer database of 120,000 Canadians