Browsing by Subject "finlandssvenskar"

Aims. Previous studies have shown that few Finnish children and adolescent fulfil the physical activity (PA) recommendations. Previous studies have also shown that the PA gained during the school day is more important for children and adolescents that are the most inactive. This group gain the majority of their physical activity during their time in school. According to socioecological models, physical and socio-psychological factors affect children’s and adolescents’ physical activity. This study aims to describe the Finnish Swedish speaking children’s and adolescents’ recess time, focusing on where they spend their recess, how physically active they are during recess, what conditions there are for PA during the recess, and whether the children and adolescents have participated in planning the schools activities. Methods. The sample consisted of 1119 Swedish speaking Finns in the grades 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 in Finland. The material was collected in the schools during spring 2018 through electronic questionnaires. Most of the participants were 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders. Frequencies and cross-tabs were used in analyses to describe the participants. To explore whether there was statistically significant differences between the grades and gender regarding the respondent’s answers in the questionnaires, khi2-test and t-test were used. Results and conclusions. Younger children spent their recess time outside more often than the adolescents. PA during recess decreased as the age increased. Moreover, the younger children found the support from schools for PA during recess to be better than the elderly ones. Children on the 3rd grade were the most active in planning the recess activities, while adolescents in the 7th and 9th grade were the least active. Conclusions: The results in this study are in line with previous studies. Keeping in mind that the recommendations for daily PA is less fulfilled, it is important that schools encourages and supports children and adolescents to be physical active during the school day. Future studies should explore whether there is an association between schools’ support for PA and children’s and adolescents’ PA, and further between participating in planning the school physical activities and children’s and adolescents’ PA.