Children's playground accessibility in the North of Portugal

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor(a) principal: Pereira, Beatriz Oliveira
Data de Publicação: 2004
Tipo de documento: Artigo
Idioma: eng
Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/4516
Resumo: With the growing significance of sedentary activities, such as television-watching, playgrounds remain important leisure facilities for children, since physical play activities have an important role in supporting children's motor, social and emotional development. When children have the opportunity to play in a playground they are promoting healthy lifestyles. In Portugal children are required to attend school until the age of 16 years and are provided with education, which is regulated by national government standards, but in regard to leisure opportunities, there is considerable inequality of provision from locality to locality. Seeking to promote the principles of play and health in the open air, a project was developed to discover the pattern of provision of children's playgrounds in different regions of the North of Portugal and to examine their physical characteristics. A questionnaire was developed and sent to Town Halls, seeking information on playground provision in each district and on the characteristics of the equipment provided in the playgrounds. This study includes four sub-regions – Ave, Cávado, Minho-Lima, Alto Trás-os-Montes – that include 38 districts. The north region of Portugal has 21.194 km2 and over 3.600.000 inhabitants and is one of the regions in Europe with youngest population. The results of the survey are presented in this paper. It was found that almost half of the districts surveyed provided less than 5 playgrounds in their area. Playgrounds are located mostly in areas without heavy traffic and the majority of playgrounds have minimal equipment - typically four or less items. Children in general therefore have few opportunities to play in playgrounds because of lack of provision and have very few opportunities to choose the activities they like to engage in because of the lack of attractive equipment. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for policy-makers in the region.
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spelling Children's playground accessibility in the North of PortugalChildrenPlaygroundsPlayEquipmentWith the growing significance of sedentary activities, such as television-watching, playgrounds remain important leisure facilities for children, since physical play activities have an important role in supporting children's motor, social and emotional development. When children have the opportunity to play in a playground they are promoting healthy lifestyles. In Portugal children are required to attend school until the age of 16 years and are provided with education, which is regulated by national government standards, but in regard to leisure opportunities, there is considerable inequality of provision from locality to locality. Seeking to promote the principles of play and health in the open air, a project was developed to discover the pattern of provision of children's playgrounds in different regions of the North of Portugal and to examine their physical characteristics. A questionnaire was developed and sent to Town Halls, seeking information on playground provision in each district and on the characteristics of the equipment provided in the playgrounds. This study includes four sub-regions – Ave, Cávado, Minho-Lima, Alto Trás-os-Montes – that include 38 districts. The north region of Portugal has 21.194 km2 and over 3.600.000 inhabitants and is one of the regions in Europe with youngest population. The results of the survey are presented in this paper. It was found that almost half of the districts surveyed provided less than 5 playgrounds in their area. Playgrounds are located mostly in areas without heavy traffic and the majority of playgrounds have minimal equipment - typically four or less items. Children in general therefore have few opportunities to play in playgrounds because of lack of provision and have very few opportunities to choose the activities they like to engage in because of the lack of attractive equipment. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for policy-makers in the region.Comissão de Coordenação da Região Norte de Portugal (CCRN).World Leisure OrganizationUniversidade do MinhoPereira, Beatriz Oliveira20042004-01-01T00:00:00Zinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/1822/4516eng"World Leisure Journal". ISSN 0441-9057. 46:1 (2004) 38-45.0441-905710.1080/04419057.2004.9674347info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessreponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAP2023-07-21T12:41:57Zoai:repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt:1822/4516Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-19T19:39:03.503267Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Children's playground accessibility in the North of Portugal
title Children's playground accessibility in the North of Portugal
spellingShingle Children's playground accessibility in the North of Portugal
Pereira, Beatriz Oliveira
Children
Playgrounds
Play
Equipment
title_short Children's playground accessibility in the North of Portugal
title_full Children's playground accessibility in the North of Portugal
title_fullStr Children's playground accessibility in the North of Portugal
title_full_unstemmed Children's playground accessibility in the North of Portugal
title_sort Children's playground accessibility in the North of Portugal
author Pereira, Beatriz Oliveira
author_facet Pereira, Beatriz Oliveira
author_role author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Universidade do Minho
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv Pereira, Beatriz Oliveira
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv Children
Playgrounds
Play
Equipment
topic Children
Playgrounds
Play
Equipment
description With the growing significance of sedentary activities, such as television-watching, playgrounds remain important leisure facilities for children, since physical play activities have an important role in supporting children's motor, social and emotional development. When children have the opportunity to play in a playground they are promoting healthy lifestyles. In Portugal children are required to attend school until the age of 16 years and are provided with education, which is regulated by national government standards, but in regard to leisure opportunities, there is considerable inequality of provision from locality to locality. Seeking to promote the principles of play and health in the open air, a project was developed to discover the pattern of provision of children's playgrounds in different regions of the North of Portugal and to examine their physical characteristics. A questionnaire was developed and sent to Town Halls, seeking information on playground provision in each district and on the characteristics of the equipment provided in the playgrounds. This study includes four sub-regions – Ave, Cávado, Minho-Lima, Alto Trás-os-Montes – that include 38 districts. The north region of Portugal has 21.194 km2 and over 3.600.000 inhabitants and is one of the regions in Europe with youngest population. The results of the survey are presented in this paper. It was found that almost half of the districts surveyed provided less than 5 playgrounds in their area. Playgrounds are located mostly in areas without heavy traffic and the majority of playgrounds have minimal equipment - typically four or less items. Children in general therefore have few opportunities to play in playgrounds because of lack of provision and have very few opportunities to choose the activities they like to engage in because of the lack of attractive equipment. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for policy-makers in the region.
publishDate 2004
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2004
2004-01-01T00:00:00Z
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/1822/4516
url http://hdl.handle.net/1822/4516
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv "World Leisure Journal". ISSN 0441-9057. 46:1 (2004) 38-45.
0441-9057
10.1080/04419057.2004.9674347
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eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv World Leisure Organization
publisher.none.fl_str_mv World Leisure Organization
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação
instacron:RCAAP
instname_str Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação
instacron_str RCAAP
institution RCAAP
reponame_str Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
collection Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
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