Relationship between Children’s Toes and Kindergartens’ Barefoot Policy

Abstract

This study clarified the relationship between children’s toes and kindergartens’ barefoot policy by comparing the condition of untouched toes, that is, toes not touching the ground while standing normally, between children who attended kindergartens following a barefoot policy and those who did not. Participants were 552 children (299 boys and 253 girls) attending kindergartens that followed a barefoot policy and 538 children (286 boys and 252 girls) attending kindergartens that did not follow this policy. The presence of floating toes was determined from pictures of participants’ soles on a contact surface area. For boys, the percentage of untouched toes was significantly lower for those who attended kindergartens following a barefoot policy (50.5%) than for those who attended kindergartens not following this policy (66.4%). Moreover, the number of untouched toes was significantly lower in children who attended kindergartens following a barefoot policy than for those who did not. On the other hand, results for boys differed from those for girls. Possibly, the occurrence of young children’s untouched toes decreases when they attend kindergartens following a barefoot policy, especially for those who are very active.