Monsur, M.; Hefner, T.; Van Allen, J.; Trina, N.A.; Andalib, S.Y.; Cosco, N. Effects of Childcare Hands-On Gardening on Preschoolers’ (3–5 Years) Physical Activity in Semi-Arid Climate Zone. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2024, 21, 548.
Monsur, M.; Hefner, T.; Van Allen, J.; Trina, N.A.; Andalib, S.Y.; Cosco, N. Effects of Childcare Hands-On Gardening on Preschoolers’ (3–5 Years) Physical Activity in Semi-Arid Climate Zone. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2024, 21, 548.
Monsur, M.; Hefner, T.; Van Allen, J.; Trina, N.A.; Andalib, S.Y.; Cosco, N. Effects of Childcare Hands-On Gardening on Preschoolers’ (3–5 Years) Physical Activity in Semi-Arid Climate Zone. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2024, 21, 548.
Monsur, M.; Hefner, T.; Van Allen, J.; Trina, N.A.; Andalib, S.Y.; Cosco, N. Effects of Childcare Hands-On Gardening on Preschoolers’ (3–5 Years) Physical Activity in Semi-Arid Climate Zone. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2024, 21, 548.
Abstract
How hands-on gardening impacts behaviors including healthy eating and physical activity during early childhood can be of critical importance for preventing early onsets of obesity. This research investigates how participating in hands-on gardening impacts preschoolers’ (3-5 years old) physical activity (measured by accelerometers) in childcare centers in the Semi-Arid Climate Zone. The research was conducted in eight licensed childcare centers located in West Texas with 149 children (n=149). Four childcare centers in the experimental group received hands-on garden interventions; the other four in the control group did not. In both experimental (intervention) and control (non-intervention) centers, children wore Actigraph GT3X+ accelerometers continuously for 5 days before and for 5 days after intervention (a total of 10 days). Results show that the duration of sedentary behavior of children in the experimental (intervention) group significantly decreased compared to children in the control (non-intervention) group. The finding suggests that the positive effects of childcare hands-on gardening on physical activity extend to semi-arid climate zones where gardening is challenging due to high temperatures and lack of annual rainfall. The research emphasizes the critical need to incorporate hands-on gardening in childcare centers as an obesity prevention strategy nationally in the U.S. and beyond.
Public Health and Healthcare, Public, Environmental and Occupational Health
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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