Active free-play outdoors may serve as an important way to increase children's physical activity levels. In this study, Veitch and colleagues investigated the relationship between various individual, social, and environmental factors and children's active free-play in three locations outside of school hours: the yard at home, in their street/court/footpath, and the park/playground. Researchers also examined relationships between how often children played in these three locations and their physical activity levels. As part of this study, 187 parents of 8- to 9-year-old children from primary schools in Melbourne, Australia completed a survey about individual factors (e.g., marital and employment status), social environmental factors (e.g., crime rate in neighborhood), and physical environmental factors (e.g., size of yard and quality of parks). In addition, participating children wore an accelerometer for 8 days to measure their physical activity levels. In analyzing the data, Veitch and colleagues found the following results for each of the three locations examined:
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