Outdoor Play Gives Way to Screens. KKFF Presents Findings from the Czech Children Outdoors Research
Published: 11. june 2024
Exactly 2 hours and 4 minutes. That is the average time a Czech child spends outdoors each day. For preschoolers, it is more, but the older children get, the less time they spend outside. By contrast, the time school aged children spend online increases. While parents’ safety concerns discourage younger children from spending longer outdoors, parents of older children cite online activities and a lack of friends to play with outside as the main barriers. These findings come from the Czech Children Outdoors research conducted by the Karel Komárek Family Foundation together with the STEM analytical institute.
Time spent on social media is strongly competing with children’s outdoor activities. This is suggested by a comparison of data from the 2024 Czech Children Outdoors research with the results of a similar study commissioned by KKFF in 2015. Since then, the total time children spend outdoors has decreased by only a few minutes. By contrast, the share of parents whose children lack friends to go outside with more often has increased by 22 percent. This comes at a time when almost 40 percent of schoolchildren spend one hour or less outdoors on weekdays.
„This research is closely linked to our Foundation’s work. Since 2011, we have been actively engaged in topics and activities that support outdoor learning in kindergartens. Thanks to these new data, we can fulfil our long term intention to base our work on reliable evidence. Because the survey was truly comprehensive and mapped a wide range of areas, its findings can be used not only by teachers and non profit organisations, but also by public sector experts and the wider public.“
KKFF Director
„Compared to the previous study, our research among children aged 7 to 15 and their parents was expanded to include parents of preschool children, as well as interviews with children and their parents and with kindergarten and primary school teachers. This extensive research enabled us to identify different groups of children, characterised by the activities they pursue and by the type of outdoor environment where they spend time. Each group has its own story, describing how children see themselves, how they feel, how they perceive their surroundings, what they enjoy, where they like to spend their free time, and how their parents see them.“
Senior Analyst, STEM
The Czech School Inspectorate welcomed the research. According to the Inspectorate, the new information gathered points to changes in the lifestyle of young families and in how they view movement and outdoor learning.
„Greater emphasis needs to be placed on outdoor learning. In preschool education, the Czech School Inspectorate has long monitored outdoor learning as part of its evaluation of kindergartens, focusing primarily on the extent of outdoor activities, two hours in the morning, and on the characteristics of outdoor learning, creativity, discovery, experiential learning, spontaneity, and problem solving. The use of gardens and playgrounds for learning is often underestimated, even though outdoor learning plays an irreplaceable role in children’s development.“
Deputy Chief School Inspector
Among the interesting new findings from the 2024 research is the fact that only a minority of children get outdoors during school lessons. At the same time, parents support outdoor learning and schools could make greater use of the potential of school gardens, whose transformations KKFF supports. Data collection took place in 2023. STEM surveyed 1,508 children and the same number of parents, combining quantitative and qualitative methods.
The research report brings a large amount of new data. The full research results can be found below.
Ke stažení
E‑book: Czech Children Outdoors Research (CZ)
KeyCzech Children Outdoors Research Findings at a Glance (CZ)
Photo of Jitka Uhrová in the quote block: www.stem.cz
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