ArticleChildren (Basel, Switzerland)2026
Structured Activity and Free Outdoor Play in Early Childhood Education and Care: An OSRAC-P Observational Study of Physical Activity Intensity and Context.
Article in Children (Basel, Switzerland), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Physical Activity and the Development of Self-Regulation in Early Childhood: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of Intelligence · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOutdoor time in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings provides important opportunities for children's physical activity. Evidence is limited on whether different organizational outdoor conditions influence not only activity intensity but also the contextual characteristics of children's movement.
methodsAn observational study was conducted using the Observational System for Recording Physical Activity in Children-Preschool Version (OSRAC-P). The study was conducted in two public ECEC centers. Not all children were observed across all three conditions due to the field-based design. A total of 7440 observation intervals were analyzed from preschool children across three outdoor conditions (structured educator-led physical activity, outdoor free play, and outdoor free play with additional portable equipment) using a momentary time-sampling protocol (10 s observation + 50 s recording), resulting in one interval per minute. Physical activity intensity, activity type, equipment use, and social context were coded. Contextual differences were analyzed using chi-square tests with standardized residuals, and activity intensity using linear mixed-effects models.
resultsNo significant differences were found between outdoor conditions in physical activity intensity, sedentary behavior, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (all
conclusionsAlthough physical activity intensity did not differ across conditions, the structure, material context, and social organization of children's activity varied, highlighting the practical importance of intentionally combining different outdoor activity formats to support diverse movement patterns in ECEC settings.
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