A The Kids Research Institute Australia study which looked at how Western Australian families coped with COVID-19 restrictions has shown many parents managed to find the silver lining in WA’s lockdown last year.
The study – which surveyed 157 parents of children aged 5-9 years about their kids’ physical activity levels during WA’s March-June 2020 lockdown – found that while organised sports and activities dropped sharply due to the restrictions, many parents filled the void with unstructured physical activity like outdoor play, bike rides and family walks.
“We found the parents we heard from really made the most of the additional family time afforded by COVID-19 restrictions,” study lead Dr Andrea Nathan said.
“Even though screen time predictably went up and organised sports dropped off, overall physical activity levels actually remained steady thanks to a significant increase in unstructured physical activity in this age group.”
On average, kids from the families who were surveyed engaged in 146 more minutes of unstructured play per week than they had pre-lockdown.
“This was an unexpected but pleasing result, especially since a number of other countries who’ve looked at this reported a decrease in kids’ physical activity during their countries’ COVID-19 restrictions,” Dr Nathan said.
“It was a pleasant surprise to see that families found ways to replace physical activity lost due to the closure of places like formal playgrounds, schools, sporting clubs and other organised physical activities, which is a major source of kids’ physical activity,” Dr Andrea Nathan.
Dr Nathan said the results were probably influenced by factors including WA’s mild weather at that time of year and a lower housing density than many places, with more families having backyards or parks nearby to enable more unstructured physical activity like playing outdoors, bike rides and family walks.
“Importantly, we also had very clear communication from our political leaders around permissible reasons to leave the house,” she said. “The fact that one of those reasons was exercise meant it was top of mind for a lot of families and gave them an excuse to get out and be active.
“The families we spoke with were also motivated to get their kids to be physical and outside during COVID-19 restrictions. Parents also told us how they used their environments differently to enable this to happen.”
One parent, for example, told researchers: “Playgrounds have always been a big part of our life as we don't have much of a backyard, so we've had to move our play to the front yard where we play tennis, cricket, footy etc. Bike rides around the neighbourhood have now become a daily activity where they used to be only a weekend or occasional activity.”
Senior author, Associate Professor Hayley Christian, said the results were a great reminder of the value of unstructured physical activity and free play for children, which had dropped off in recent decades as children’s lives became more scheduled.
“Physical activity, including unstructured activity, is essential for kids’ healthy development but also has enormous benefits for children’s and parents’ physical and mental health,” Associate Professor Christian.
“If you think about how coronavirus hit many of us – especially parents who were juggling working from home and looking after and schooling their children – any opportunity to allow kids to burn some energy, release those endorphins from being physically active, and get the positive mental health benefits of being outdoors is a good thing.”
She said it was easy to forget the importance of simple play and spending time outdoors.
“We get so cooped up in our very structured lives that we forget having some free time and having that quality time together can be so invigorating for us as parents but also for kids,” Associate Professor Christian said.
“One thing COVID-19 taught us was the importance of slowing life down – now that things have gone almost back to normal in WA, it’s important to remember to keep free unstructured time in the family schedule so that there are regular opportunities to go on a bush walk or bike ride together.”
Associate Professor Christian added that the findings could better equip parents, authorities, and organisations that supported families to respond well if restrictions again became necessary.
“We all responded pretty quickly to COVID-19 last year and used what resources we had available to support families, but we didn’t have information about how families and kids were coping or the actual impact on physical activity,” she said.
“Now we do have that information it gives us an opportunity to tailor some really good existing resources as well as develop new ones to give parents practical ways to support children to remain physically active and mentally healthy during and after potential future COVID-19 restrictions.”
The study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, can be read here.