At-Risk Youth in an After-School Program: Structured vs. Unstructured Physical Activity

The Daily Mile™: Acute effects on children’s cognitive function and factors affecting their enjoyment

“…In particular, children found participation in The Daily Mile enjoyable due to its social context, outdoor location and self-paced nature. These findings support previous research which has recognised children's value of social connections during exercise (Harris et al, 2019;Kinder et al, 2019) and extend upon them by detailing the factors which promoted an enjoyable social context during The Daily Mile; specifically, the informal environment which enabled fun, supportive and motivational interactions while exercising. Moreover, the findings of the present study demonstrate that children enjoyed the self-paced nature of The Daily Mile as it enabled them to have choice over their exercise intensity and thus exercise to their own ability.…”

The association between physical activity and mental health in children with special educational needs: A systematic review

“…Meanwhile overall PA (combined) was the most frequently studied topic in our review, and this was consistent with previous studies, which concluded that both unstructured and structured PA participation types could improve quality of life in children with neurodevelopmental disabilities ( Dahan-Oliel et al, 2012 ). Moreover, both PA types should be applied to maximize PA's positive effects ( Kinder et al, 2019 ), and team sports have stronger mental health associations than individual sports ( Rodriguez-Ayllon et al, 2019 ).…”

Children of Smoking and Non-Smoking Households’ Perceptions of Physical Activity, Cardiorespiratory Fitness, and Exercise

“…Children from low-income families spend less time in out-of-school structured activities, such as sport sessions, but may make up PA time in unstructured activity [ 118 ]. However, structured PA may confer additional benefits and increased MVPA [ 119 , 120 ]. Activity promoting voucher schemes may offer valuable assistance to children from low income smoking homes as this has been previously shown to overcome financial barriers to PA in children [ 121 , 122 ], conferring improvements in MVPA, fitness, and socialisation [ 123 , 124 ].…”

“…However, an apparent difference between both groups of children is the type of PA provided by parents, with children from non-smoking homes more frequently discussing structured PA. Structured PA, such as organised sport, may result in higher levels of MVPA [ 119 , 120 ] and increased levels of fitness [ 115 ] compared to unstructured PA. However, time spent outdoors, whether structured or unstructured, results in more active time and MVPA than time spent indoors [ 120 ].…”