Investigators: Hayley Christian, Anna Bird
Children’s daily physical activity and screen time behaviours have wide-ranging impacts on their physical and psychosocial health, school performance and wellbeing.
Around half a million children attend Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) every week. OSHC is an ideal setting to positively influence the daily activity patterns of Australia children at a formative stage of their lives.
At present, physical activity and screen time practices in Australian OSHC services are not guided by clear policy. As a result, practice varies enormously, with instances of OSHC services allowing unrestricted recreational screen time for over five hours per day and providing no opportunity for physically active play.
We work with government and industry to lift the standards of physical activity and screen time offerings in OSHC. We are conducting a major implementation trial across three states (SA, WA and NSW), followed by a national dissemination study.
Find out more and stay up to date about Activated OSHC at https://activatedoshc.org.au/
For more information about this project and how to get involved, please get in touch with us at activatedOSHC@telethonkids.org.au
Project outputs
End-user outputs:
- Online resources to assist OSHC services to provide optimal physical activity and screen time programming within their services.
- Online professional development modules for OSHC educators.
- Development of an accreditation process to enable OSHC services to become recognised as 'Activated OSHC' services.
Research outputs:
- Peer-reviewed journal papers with the study protocol and findings.
- Various communication activities including conferences, media releases, community presentations
- Dissemination workshops in every state co-hosted with National Outside School Hours Services Alliance (NOSHSA) state branches.
Funders
- National Health and Medical Research Council – Partnership Grant
- Medical Research Future Foundations (MRFF) – Maternal Health and First 2000 Days Early Childhood and Exercise and Nutrition
- Department for Education South Australia
- Healthway Western Australia
- Hunter New England Local Health District Newcastle – Healthy children’s initiative
Administering institution
- University of South Australia (Prof Carol Maher)
External collaborators
- Professor Carol Maher – University of South Australia
- Professor Luke Wolfenden – Hunter New England Health/University of Newcastle
- Dr Nicole Nathan – Hunter New England Health/University of Newcastle
- Professor Adrian Esterman – University of South Australia
- Professor Tony Okely – University of Wollongong
- Associate Professor Lucy Lewis – Flinders University
- Professor Ric Rosenkranz – Kansas State University (USA)
- Dr Dylan Cliff – University of Wollongong
- Dr Rachel Curtis – University of South Australia
- Dr Rachel Milte – Flinders University
Project Partners
- Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority
- National Outside School Hours Services Alliance (NOSHSA)
- Outside School Hours Council of Australia
- Big Fat Smile (NSW)
- Wellbeing SA
- YMCA (The Y) SA/WA/NSW