The amount of time children spend being sedentary (e.g., watching television, using the computer, or playing electronic games) is considered an important factor in childhood obesity. In this study, Veitch and colleagues investigated the relationship between features of children's physical and social neighborhood environment and the amount of time they spend in sedentary behaviors outside of school.
To examine this relationship, researchers had parents of 171 5- to 6-year-old children complete surveys in 2004 about their physical and social neighborhood environment (e.g., quality of parks, amount of social contacts, and neighborhood safety), as well as complete a survey in 2004 and 2006 about the amount of time their child spent watching TV, using the computer, and playing electronic games. In addition, children wore accelerometers in 2004 and 2006 to measure their activity levels and researchers identified and visited the public open space closest to each child to assess its features.
In examining the data for 2004, Veitch and colleagues found that certain physical features of children's neighborhood environment, but not social features, influenced their sedentary behavior. Researchers found that children whose closest public open space had a water feature and who had parents that were more satisfied with public open space quality spent less time with computer/electronic games. In addition, they found that children whose closest public open space was larger spent less time watching TV. In examining data from 2004 to 2006, Veitch and colleagues found that children that lived in a cul-de-sac spent less time watching TV and children who had parents that were more satisfied with public open space quality spent less time using computer/electronic games. Contrary to their other findings, researchers discovered that children whose closest public open space had a walking path spent more time with computer/electronic games, possibly because walking paths are not important or of interest to 5-6-year-old children.
This study provides important information, using a variety of measures across multiple years, about the relationship between the built environment and children's sedentary behaviors.
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