PROmoting Early Childhood Outside (PRO-ECO)

NCT05073380 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: H20-03912-A001
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 333
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Licensed early learning and childcare centres (ELCCs) can provide children with rich opportunities for outdoor play that they may not otherwise experience in their home or community. However, many ELCCs struggle to provide high quality and stimulating outdoor play time. The primary aim of our study is to develop, implement and test a comprehensive multi-component intervention, the PROmoting Early Childhood Outside (PRO-ECO), to build capacity for, and address the complexities of building support for outdoor play in early childcare centre settings. This is to ultimately increase children's access to engaging outdoor spaces for play. Our overarching goal is to develop and evaluate a comprehensive multi-component intervention, called the PROmoting Early Childhood Outside (PRO-ECO). This intervention is to increase children's outdoor play and the diversity of outdoor play behaviour in Canadian ELCC settings providing full-day licensed care for preschoolers. The PRO-ECO integrates development of policies and procedure, early childhood educator (ECE) training and mentorship, outdoor space modifications and, parent/caregiver engagement. The PRO-ECO intervention will be co-developed, implemented and evaluated in partnership with the YMCA of Greater Vancouver (YMCAGV). A wait-list control cluster randomised trial design (RCT) will evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention and how it can be modified to tackle barriers in diverse settings.

Conditions

Child Development

Keywords

Children's outdoor play; Children's outdoor risky play; Early childhood education

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Assessing child participation in outdoor free play by identifying prevalence of play

  To assess children's participation in outdoor free play at ELCCs, an observational behavior mapping (OBM) methodology will be used. OBM involves understanding how an environment supports movement through mapping, recording, and analyzing geographically located data. OBM involves trained research assistants taking observations at the 8 participating YMCA sites as children participate in designated outdoor playtime. OBM assessments will be performed by scanning designated observational zones throughout the outdoor play space. The observational data will be collected based on the 'space' of the ELCC, not by individual child. If there is no child in an observational zone, there will be no data collected at that point. Within each observational zone, children's play activities will be coded in 15-second increments. For the primary outcome measure, the categories being collected are 'play' (child observed for that data point is engaged in play) and 'non-play' (child is not playing).

  Intervention Group - Change of prevalence of play at 5-months/10-months post-intervention (Spring 2022/Fall 2022); Wait List Control Group - Change of prevalence of play at 5-months post-intervention (Fall 2022)

Secondary Outcomes (5)

• Assessing the diversity of play types children engage in

  Intervention Group - Baseline (Fall 2021), 5-months/10-months post-intervention (Spring 2022/Fall 2022); Wait List Control Group - Baseline/post-baseline (Fall 2021/Spring 2022), 5-months post-intervention (Fall 2022)

• Quality of early childhood education centres' outdoor play spaces

  Intervention Group - Baseline (Fall 2021), 5-months/10-months post-intervention (Spring 2022/Fall 2022); Wait List Control Group - Baseline/post-baseline (Fall 2021/Spring 2022), 5-months post-intervention (Fall 2022)

• Early childhood educators' attitudes towards outdoor risky play

  Intervention Group - Baseline (Fall 2021), 5-months/10-months post-intervention (Spring 2022/Fall 2022); Wait List Control Group - Baseline/post-baseline (Fall 2021/Spring 2022), 5-months post-intervention (Fall 2022)

• Acceptability and feasibility of PRO-ECO intervention

  Intervention Group - Baseline (Fall 2021), 5-months/10-months post-intervention (Spring 2022/Fall 2022); Wait List Control Group - Baseline/post-baseline (Fall 2021/Spring 2022), 5-months post-intervention (Fall 2022)

• Economic analysis of PRO-ECO intervention

  Intervention Group - Baseline (Fall 2021), 5-months/10-months post-intervention (Spring 2022/Fall 2022); Wait List Control Group - Baseline/post-baseline (Fall 2021/Spring 2022), 5-months post-intervention (Fall 2022)

Other Outcomes (4)

• Children's psychosocial strengths

  Intervention Group - Baseline (Fall 2021), 5-months/10-months post-intervention (Spring 2022/Fall 2022); Wait List Control Group - Baseline/post-baseline (Fall 2021/Spring 2022), 5-months post-intervention (Fall 2022)

• Children's relationship to outdoor play

  Intervention Group - Baseline (Fall 2021), 5-months/10-months post-intervention (Spring 2022/Fall 2022); Wait List Control Group - Baseline/post-baseline (Fall 2021/Spring 2022), 5-months post-intervention (Fall 2022)

• Child health

  Intervention Group - Baseline (Fall 2021), 5-months/10-months post-intervention (Spring 2022/Fall 2022); Wait List Control Group - Baseline/post-baseline (Fall 2021/Spring 2022), 5-months post-intervention (Fall 2022)

Study Arms (2)

Control

EXPERIMENTAL

Outdoor play is an essential component of childhood development, including supporting children's cognitive, physical, emotional, and social growth. Currently, the YMCA early learning and child care centres (ELCCs) host children within childcare settings, with outdoor playtime governed by institutional regulations.

Behavioral: Wait List Group - Normal Daily Practice

Intervention

SHAM COMPARATOR

The PRO-ECO intervention to increase the quality of outdoor play involves four primary components: 1. Modifying YMCA GV's outdoor play policies The ELCC policy on outdoor play requirements and procedures will be modified in conjunction with YMCA management. 2. ECE training ECEs will undergo training delivered by YMCA of Southwestern Ontario that includes the importance of outdoor risky play, along with other online training tools along with resources on supporting outdoor play. There will also be ongoing as-needed supportive training and mentorship provided by YMCA senior managers and research team, along with peer mentorship and support. 3. ELCC outdoor space modification This includes designing and implementing tailored modifications for each centre's outdoor play space developed by landscape architecture students. 4. Parent engagement We will host parent-engagement events and opportunities to increase knowledge of the importance of outdoor play.

Behavioral: Intervention Group - PRO-ECO Intervention

Interventions

Intervention Group - PRO-ECO Intervention BEHAVIORAL

The PRO-ECO intervention will be tailored to individual sites. Through collection of focus group and baseline data, the intervention will be further refined to provide site-specific adjustments, such as specific materials in the built environment design modification or targeted training. Identified features of effective interventions outlined in the literature have informed the development of the intervention foundation and potential tailoring.

Intervention

Wait List Group - Normal Daily Practice BEHAVIORAL

ELCCs that are randomly assigned to the waitlist group will participate in their normal daily practice, including standard curriculum and outdoor play time. Once post-data collection is complete, wait list sites will be given the PRO-ECO intervention.

Control

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 30 Months - 99 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may not qualify if:

• Being early childhood educators (ECEs) or staff (e.g., administrators, directors and supervisors) at the participating YMCA GV ELCCs.
• Being between the ages of 2.5 to 6 years;
• Currently enrolled in one of the participating YMCAGV ELCCs;
• Obtained parental consent for their participation in the study.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of British Columbia: lead
• The Lawson Foundation: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

British Columbia Children's Hospital Research Institute

Vancouver, British Columbia, V6H 3V4, Canada

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Ramsden R, Han CS, Mount D, Loebach J, Cox A, Herrington S, Bundy A, Fyfe-Johnson A, Sandseter EBH, Stone M, Tremblay MS, Brussoni M. An Intervention to Increase Outdoor Play in Early Childhood Education Centers (PROmoting Early Childhood Outside): Protocol for a Pilot Wait-list Control Cluster Randomized Trial. JMIR Res Protoc. 2022 Jul 12;11(7):e38365. doi: 10.2196/38365.

  PMID: 35819829 DERIVED

Study Officials

• Mariana Brussoni

  University of British Columbia

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: September 13, 2021
• First Posted: October 11, 2021
• Study Start: January 1, 2021
• Primary Completion: December 6, 2022
• Study Completion: June 6, 2023
• Last Updated: November 28, 2023

Record last verified: 2023-11

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ICF
• Time Frame: Starting upon publication of the RCT results until five years after publication.
• Access Criteria: Dr. Brussoni will review requests and share supporting information as indicated above with researchers and students going similar research interests.

Locations

CA (1)