Using participatory approaches with children to better understand their physical activity behaviour.

Aims And Objectives: The importance of childhood physical activity is widely recognised. Helping children to articulate their opinions is a crucial factor in improving their health and well-being, yet the field is predominantly focused on adult-led quantitative methods and lacks deeper understanding from a child perspective.

Methods: This paper draws on experiences from a Danish study in which children depicted their physical activity behaviour in go-along group interviews in schoolyards ( = 111), and a Scottish study in which children photographed or drew meaningful places and discussed physical activity in these places ( = 25).

Exploring Children's Perceptions of their Local Environment in Relation to Time Spent Outside.

This study aims to understand how children perceive their environment, exploring the affordances children perceive to influence their physical activity (PA) behaviour when outside. Participants included boys and girls aged 10-12 years (n = 15) living in Scotland. Children's visual and verbal representations of their perceived environment were analysed to assess environmental determinants of PA.