KidsOutdoors

The Scout Association commissioned brand new studies into attitudes towards outdoors lifestyles. Here are some of the key findings:

What young people really think about the outdoors

We asked 1,000 young people how often they took part in outdoor activities and what they wanted to do. What were the barriers to going outdoors?

• Kids say they spend an average of 3.4 days outside for 60 mins+, with 7% never going outdoors and 11% outdoors everyday. Boys and younger age groups spend the most time outdoors.
• Most popular sports are running, football and swimming – about one third to a half say they do these activities at least once a month.
• Cycling and walking are also common outdoors activities – a third of kids cycle a least once a month and third quarters say they walk for at least 30 mins a day once a week or more.
• Activities such as camping, gardening and watersports are popular though engaged in less frequently – about a half of kids go camping though the majority of these go less than once a month (probably even less than that).
• Regarding indoor activities, TV and computer are commonplace in the majority if not all homes. Of kids favourite activities overall the top three are all indoors, with the nearest competitor being football.
• Most kids acknowledge the importance of outdoor activities – most would like to spend more time outdoors and few think they spend enough time outside already
• Kids also attribute positive adjectives to outdoor activities – three quarters select healthy, energetic and fun. Negative attributes are least likely to be selected though notably kids think their friends are more likely to perceive outdoor activities more negatively
• The most common obstacle to getting out more appears to be lack of knowledge about activities in the area, applicable to almost two thirds of kids. Time and money pressures are the most common barriers (approx 40%), with around 20% citing reasons such as fitness, what their friends would think, not likely the outdoors etc.

What parents really think about the outdoors

We asked 1,000 parents about them and family’s outdoors activities. Once again, results were revealing:

• Parents spend about 4 hours a week outside themselves – roughly half of which is with their kids and half without
• Parents estimate their kids spend 2.7 days outside for longer than 30mins – less than what kids estimate themselves
• There is high agreement with the importance of children spending more time outdoors, with about two thirds admitting they feel their children don’t go outdoors enough.
• Barriers follow a similar order to those cited by the kids – knowledge/accessibility, time/money pressures followed by worries about bullying etc. The exception is concerns for their children’s safety, which is at top of mind for nearly half of the parents
• In comparison to their own childhood parents feel they had more freedom, less supervision and were less reliant on TV for entertainment.
• Many parents feel although they spend more time with their children than their own parents spent with them, this is still not enough, with the stresses of modern day life being one of the reasons for this.

Read the full report