search

• Aspects
• Family
• Child care
• In study and work
• Community
  • Social connections
  • Neighbourhood connections
  • Child participation
  • Play and recreation
    • Snapshot
    • Table: summary
    • Figure: sex
    • Figure: age
• Health
• Crime and safety
• Economic security
• Demographics
• Age groups
• Essays
• Glossary

What does this mean?

In Kids Stats play and recreation refers to leisure experiences that provide fun, enjoyment and emotional fulfilment to children and young people. 

Why is it important to monitor?

Play and recreation develop children and young people by encouraging creativity, individuality and, social, physical and intellectual growth. A number of studies have shown the benefits to children from engaging in play and recreation from a very early age [1].

Play can take many forms. It can be structured or unstructured, passive or active. Whatever form it takes, play provides children and young people with the freedom and space to explore new things and master new skills.

Participation in sport provides opportunity for children and young people to reduce their stress, develop skills and abilities in their chosen sport, as well as developing skills in teamwork, cooperation and strategy building.

Children and young people can readily identify the play and recreation activities that they enjoy. It is important that families, schools and communities listen and respond. 

Indicator

Currently, there is no routine measure of play and recreation collected in NSW. The indicator used in Kids Stats to monitor play and recreation is obtained from the NSW Child Health Survey 2001 [2]. The indicator is:

The favourite activity/activities of children aged 4 to 12 years when not at school or day care as reported by their parent or carer as a proportion of responses.

Multiple responses could be provided by the parent or carer when giving information on favourite activities. 

Main findings

The top three favourite activities of children aged 4 to 12 years were:

• playing (at home, in the front or back yard, or in the park)
• playing sport
• watching television, movies, videos or using a computer

Sport was nominated as a favourite activity for a greater proportion of boys than girls (30.0% compared with 12.8%), while playing (at home/in yard/park) was nominated as a favourite activity for a greater proportion of girls than boys (24.9% compared with 19.0%).

Age was a factor. Sport was most frequently (28.4%) nominated for the 8 to 12 year olds, while playing was the most common for the 4 to 7 year olds (31.5%).

Notes

[1] Buchanan, A. & Hudson, B.L. (2000). Promoting children’s emotional wellbeing: messages from research, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
[2] Quaine, J., Eyeson-Annan, M., Baker, D., O’Sullivan, B., Williamson, M., & Jorm L. (2003). Report on the Development of the Child Health Survey. NSW Public Health Bulletin, 14 (S-1).

For details of the references and to find out more about the data follow the link to Glossary and further information