Residential Environment for Outdoor Play Among Children in Latino Farmworker Families

Abstract

Child health and development benefit from physical activity. This analysis describes the residential play environment for children aged 2–4 years in farmworker families, their parent-reported levels of play and media time, and the association of residential environment with play and media time. Mothers with a child aged 2–4 years in farmworker families (n = 248) completed interviews over 2 years. Outcome measures were daily outdoor play time and media time. Measures of the residential environment included physical and social components. The mean min/day for outdoor play was 81.8 (SD 57.3) at baseline, 111.4 (SD 90.1) at year 1 follow-up, and 103.6 (SD 76.2) at year 2 follow-up. The mean media min/day at baseline was 83.8 (SD 64.3), 93.7 (SD 80.3) min/day at year 1 follow-up, and 59.9 min/day (SD (45.6) at year 2 follow-up. One additional person per bedroom was associated with 6 fewer min/day with media. The addition of each age appropriate toy was associated with an additional 12.3 min/day of outdoor play. An additional type of inappropriate media was associated with 6.8 more min/day with media. These results suggest changes to the residential environment to improve physical activity among children in Latino farmworker families.