The aim of this study was to examine the association of residential physical and social environments with sedentary and active time among young children in Latino farmworker families. Data was collected from the mothers of children, age 2 – 4 years of age, through quarterly interviews over a two-year period in the state of North Carolina. Trained native Spanish-speaking community members contacted the participants and conducted the interviews. The interviews were completed in the participants' homes or another location determined by the participant. A total of 221 mothers completed all nine interviews – the baseline and eight quarterly follow-ups.
Data collected during the interviews focused on young children's daily outdoor play time, their media time, and characteristics of the physical and social environments in which the children lived. Measures used for collecting this data were based on items included in NDS-R (Nutrition Data System for Research). Two items addressed outdoor play -- how many minutes the child spent playing at a park or playground and how many minutes the child spent playing in the yard. Two items addressed media time -- how many minutes the child spent watching TV and how many minutes the child spent playing video or computer games. For each item, the mother was asked during the interview about the time the child spent on each play activity and each media activity during the morning, afternoon, and evening of the previous day.
Characteristics of the physical environment assessed included (1) the number of persons per bedroom (an indicator of crowding), (2) inappropriate media use (having a TV in view at meals and having a TV in the child's bedroom), and (3) age appropriate play equipment (large rubber ball, soccer ball, and bean bags) available in the home or yard. Social environment components assessed included limiting screen time and parent support of play. Parent support of play was based on how often the mother said she took her child to outdoor play spaces (parks, playgrounds, etc.) and indoor play spaces (skating rinks, gymnasiums, etc.) in the past three months.
Findings indicated that residential physical and social environments were associated with the levels of self-reported outdoor play time and media usage of young children in Latino farmworker families. A positive association was found between the availability of play equipment (i.e., toys) and higher levels of outdoor playtime. With the addition of each age appropriate toy, there was an additional 12.3 minutes per day of outdoor play. Inappropriate media usage (i.e., TV viewing at meal times and TV in the child's bedroom) was associated with increased media time. For each additional type of inappropriate media usage, there were 6.8 more minutes per day of media time. An unexpected finding was that more limits on media use was associated with a decrease in outdoor play. The authors suggested that this finding might be the result of confounding factors, such as limits on media use being more common in younger children, and younger children being less likely to be active outdoors.
Based on these findings, the researchers conclude that adding more toys and more limits to media usage could increase the level of physical activity of young children in Latino farmworker families where there is a higher percentage of children who are overweight or obese than in the general population.
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