The Little Rock Green Schoolyard Initiative: Changing Community Norms and Improving Opportunities for Physical Activity

小石城绿色校园倡议：改变社区规范并增加体育活动机会

• 批准号: 10706421
• 负责人: Michael R. Thomsen
• 金额: $ 33.81万
• 依托单位: UNIV OF ARKANSAS FOR MED SCIS
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-18 至 2026-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10706421
• 关键词: Active Learning; Address; Affect; African American; Air; Area; Behavior; Behavioral; Body mass index; Characteristics; Child; Cities; Communities; Community Health; Complement; Data; Development; Dimensions; Effectiveness; Environment; Future; Goals; Green space; Growth; Health Benefit; High Prevalence; Hour; Intervention; Learning; Link; Literature; Low income; Modeling; Morbid Obesity; Natural experiment; Nature; Neighborhoods; Obesity; Outcome; Pathway interactions; Pattern; Performance; Personal Satisfaction; Physical activity; Play; Prevalence; Quasi-experiment; Recreation; Reduce health disparities; Risk; Role; Schools; Social Behavior; Strenuous Exercise; Time; Training; United States; Walking; Work; cardiometabolic risk; cardiometabolism; cost effective intervention; design; elementary school; excessive weight gain; experience; fourth grade; health disparity; high risk; implementation barriers; improved; innovation; novel; obesity development; obesity in children; prevent; programs; school district; sleep behavior; social; walkability

PROJECT SUMMARY The Little Rock Green Schoolyard Initiative, with training and technical assistance from the National League of Cities and the Children and Nature Network, aims to transform the grounds of two elementary schools into nature-filled greenspaces. Using a community-schools model, several critical needs were identified. These include: (1) opportunities for outdoor learning; (2) improved outdoor play experiences; and (3) safe, welcoming spaces to connect with nature outside of school hours. Both schools serve low-income, predominately African American communities. Each school is centrally located in a walkable neighborhood, but residents in these neighborhoods have limited access to city parks within walking distance. The communities surrounding these schools are disproportionately affected by cardiometabolic conditions linked to inadequate physical activity and obesity. For the children, more opportunity for active learning and play may increase physical activity which has been shown to be beneficial for cardiometabolic profiles of children and may help address obesity-related health disparities. These health disparities are already evident in children in the two neighborhoods being impacted by this city-led program with higher proportions of severe obesity by 4th grade (body mass index exceeding 120% of the 95th percentile) than other schools in the city and state. The goal of this study is to explore the pathways through which green schoolyard improvements can reduce the development of obesity- related health disparities, as well as improve academic outcomes and community well-being. A growing literature on the health benefits of greener environments suggests that physical activity, air quality, sleep, and social behaviors are intertwined pathways that may protect against excess weight gain. Data will be collected on outcomes related to these pathways before, during, and after the green schoolyard transformations from children in the two program schools and in comparable non-program schools within the Little Rock School District. The study is designed to understand how these pathways work in combination and whether greener schoolyards influence patterns of play in ways that improve opportunities for physical activity among children who are at greater risk for developing severe obesity. Community and school-level barriers to implementation of the green schoolyard intervention will also be identified to inform future initiatives. Another strength of this study lies in the fact that there will be different dimensions to the greenspace improvements across the two schools. This allows for a richer understanding of how characteristics of the greenspace and differences in implementation affect these pathways. The lessons learned from Little Rock’s green schoolyards program will inform pragmatic and cost-effective interventions that slow the growth of severe childhood obesity in communities across the United States and reduce obesity-related health disparities.

项目摘要 小石城绿色校园倡议，在国家联盟的培训和技术援助下 城市和儿童和自然网络旨在将两所小学的理由转变为 充满自然的绿色空间。使用社区学校模型，确定了一些关键需求。这些 包括：（1）户外学习的机会； （2）改善户外游戏经验； （3）安全，热情 在上学时间之外与大自然建立联系的空间。两所学校都服务低收入，主要是非洲 美国社区。每所学校都位于可步行的社区中心，但其中的居民 步行距离之内，社区到达城市公园的距离有限。这些围绕这些社区 学校受到与体育锻炼不足和 肥胖。对于孩子来说，更多的积极学习和游戏机会可能会增加体育锻炼 已被证明对儿童的心脏代谢概况有益，可能有助于解决与肥胖有关的问题 健康差异。这些健康差异已经是两个社区中的儿童的证据 受这个由城市主导的计划的影响，其比例更高，到4年级（体重指数） 比该市和州其他学校的第95个百分点超过120％。这项研究的目的是 探索绿色校园改善可以减少肥胖的发展的途径 - 相关的健康差异，以及改善的学术成果和社区福祉。成长 关于绿色环境的健康益处的文献表明，体育锻炼，空气质量，睡眠和 社会行为是交织在一起的途径，可以防止超过体重增加。数据将被收集 关于与这些途径有关的结果，此前，期间和之后的绿色校园转变 两所课程学校的孩子以及小岩石学校的可比非编程学校 区。该研究旨在了解这些途径如何合并以及是否更绿 学校里的旧金会以改善儿童体育锻炼机会的方式影响游戏模式 患有严重肥胖的风险更大的人。社区和学校级实施障碍 还将确定绿色校园干预措施以告知未来的计划。这是另一个优势 研究在于以下事实：两者之间的绿地改进将有所不同 学校。这可以更丰富地了解绿色空间的特征和差异 实施会影响这些途径。从小石城的绿色校园计划中学到的教训将 告知务实且具有成本效益的干预措施，这些干预措施减慢了严重的儿童期生长 美国各地的社区并减少与肥胖相关的健康分配。