At the end of 2018, Jantje Beton commissioned two studies by Kantar Public to learn more about playing outside and what is needed to reverse this trend. We conducted research into: 1. Playing outside in the neighbourhood and 2. Barriers parents experience when letting their children play outside.
The study into playing outside in the neighbourhood was conducted among a panel of 12,000 parents with children aged 4–14, with 6,194 responses.
The main findings are:
On average, children play outside for 8.4 hours per week. 58% indicate that they play outside less than this average. And parents say that no less than 15% of children never play outside! Remarkably, these are predominantly children from higher social classes in the Randstad area.
More than half of the children play in their own garden or on the pavement in the neighbourhood. Children often play with friends from the neighbourhood. 53% indicate that they ‘often play alone’. One possible cause is that jumping on a trampoline is a favourite activity.
In addition, a separate study asked 1,500 parents (with a 63% response rate) what barriers they experience when their children play outside. The main findings are that parents from the highest social class also spend the least time outdoors themselves in their free time. In addition, according to the parents, half of the children prefer digital play options to playing outside. 78% of parents set rules regarding the use of social media/games.
Download the study here
Source: Jantje Beton