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Our Child Physical Activity, Health and Development team focuses on improving children’s physical activity levels, health and development. We work to uncover the best environments, policies and programs to facilitate physically active lifestyles for lifelong health and wellbeing.
Based on the socioecological conceptual model, the physical environment within the home, childcare and neighbourhood domains are key factors that influence preschool children's physical activity; however, the relative importance of each of these domains for preschool children's physical activity is unclear.
Childcare services such as preschools and long day care centres have been identified as a key setting to promote physical activity in early childhood as they provide access to large numbers of children for prolonged periods. Yet, specific standards for the type and amount of physical activity children accumulate whilst attending childcare are lacking. The purpose of this study was to derive population-referenced percentile values for children's total movement and energetic play whilst attending early childhood education and care services.
The prevalence estimates of physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep (collectively known as movement behaviors) in 3- and 4-year-old children worldwide remains uncertain.
Energy drinks (EDs) are not recommended for minors' consumption due to a myriad of health risks, but marketing initiatives persist. This study explored the promotion of EDs on TikTok, a platform frequented by children and adolescents.
Policy interventions to increase physical activity in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services are effective in increasing physical activity among young children. However, a large proportion of ECEC services do not have nor implement a physical activity policy.
Physical activity (PA) surveillance, policy, and research efforts need to be periodically appraised to gain insight into national and global capacities for PA promotion. The aim of this paper was to assess the status and trends in PA surveillance, policy, and research in 164 countries.
This research explored adults' perceptions of how sexualized images typically found on social media might influence adolescent girls' mental health, what support girls might need should they experience mental health difficulties, and how such difficulties could be prevented or reduced.
Beaches are important settings for physical activity, with their quality (safety, amenities, aesthetics) influencing how well they support health. The quality of beaches may differ across neighbourhoods, with higher socioeconomic status neighbourhoods having disproportionately better access to beaches. This study examined the attributes of and activities taking place in beaches by neighbourhood socioeconomic status.
With an increasing number of grandparents providing care to their grandchildren, calls have been made for these caregivers to be considered important stakeholders in encouraging children's engagement in health-promoting behaviors, such as physical activity.