Types of kindergarten and their relationship with parental and children's socio-demographic characteristics in Denmark.

In Danish outdoor kindergartens, children are spending most of the day outdoors often in forests or similar nature environments. These children are assumed to be healthier than children attending conventional kindergartens, however, factors related to choosing a specific type of kindergarten may explain the differences. To better understand this, we aimed to investigate parents reasons for choosing either outdoor or conventional kindergartens based on a mixed-method participatory Concept Mapping approach, and further if parental socio-demographics and early child characteristics differed prior to enrolling children to either type of kindergarten using a cohort register-based approach.

Outdoor Kindergartens: A Structural Way to Improve Early Physical Activity Behaviour?

Background: Studies have shown that outdoor play in nature is associated with a higher physical activity level than indoor play. We aimed to examine the effect of outdoor versus conventional kindergartens on objectively measured physical activity.

Method: Using a pre-test-post-test design, we collected data in four kindergartens that provided a rotating outdoor and conventional kindergarten setting.

Changes in Emotional-Behavioral Functioning Among Pre-school Children Following the Initial Stage Danish COVID-19 Lockdown and Home Confinement.

Unintended negative outcomes on child behavior due to lockdown and home confinement following the corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic needs highlighting to effectively address these issues in the current and future health crises. In this sub-study of the ODIN-study, the objectives were to determine whether the Danish lockdown and home confinement following the COVID-19 pandemic affected changes in emotional-behavioral functioning of pre-school-aged children using the validated Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) answered by parents shortly before lockdown and 3 weeks into lockdown, and moreover, to examine whether baseline family and social characteristics could predict change in child emotional-behavioral functioning during lockdown. Parents of 40 (82%) children with a mean(SD) age of 5.