Date Presented 04/03/2025
Using a population health approach to middle school student wellness, we examined what recess occupations students chose to engage in a newly enriched outdoor space and changes in students’ postrecess learning engagement and self-regulation zones.
Primary Author and Speaker: Elizabeth Larson
Additional Authors and Speakers: Neil Crowson, Seth Crews, Alexia Rebne
Contributing Authors: Kalia Xiong, Alyssa Hotchkiss
PURPOSE: This project describes middle school students’ post-recess changes in learning engagement & the associated self-selected recess occupations & zones of regulation.
DESIGN: Quasi-experimental. School staff sent all students (N=∼685) an electronic survey pre/post recess 3-5 days/month for 5 months.
METHODS: Before & after recess, students rated their learning engagement on 3 dimensions (focus, effort, enjoyment) and identified their feelings/energy level via a Zone of Regulation color. After recess, students also identified an occupation they participated in to promote wellness. All data with matching pre/postsurveys was used for this analysis. Using Norman and colleagues’ approach to identify meaningful changes in learning engagement, we grouped students into: decreased, sustained, and increased learning engagement groups. Students’ narrative responses to the wellness question were coded qualitatively, grouped into categories & quantified. The frequency of zone patterns were calculated for each group. Data was integrated to describe patterns of occupations & zones for each group.
RESULTS: 185 students completed both pre/post-recess surveys. 89 times (14%) students demonstrated increased learning engagement, 475 times (73%) sustained, and 78 times (12%) decreased. Across the groups, about 20% of the time, hanging out or talking with friends was identified as a wellness-promoting occupation. ∼44%, students reported wellness activities where they actively moved in sports, play or walking. Students who decreased engagement most often reported they were talking, or unoccupied.
CONCLUSION: Most students sustained a similar level of learning engagement after participation in recess. Their recess activities seemed to support the maintenance of self-regulation & learning engagement.
IMPACT STATEMENT: This project demonstrates how school-wide interventions that modify outdoor environments may be useful in supporting learning engagement & self-regulation.
References
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Anderson, H.B., Christiansen, L., Pawlowski, C.S., & Schipperijin (2019). What we build makes a difference—mapping activating school yard features after renewal using GIS, GPS and accelerometers. Landscape and Urban Planning, 191, 103617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2019.103617
Kuypers, L. (2011). The Zones of Regulation. San Jose, CA: Social Thinking Publishing.
Norman GR, Sloan JA, & Wyrwich, KW. (2003). Interpretation of changes in health-related quality of life: The remarkable universality of half a standard deviation. Medical Care, 41;582–592. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.MLR.000 0062554.74615.4C
