Social representations of physical activity and active play in preschoolers: scoping review

Abstract

Background: understanding social representations (SR) of physical activity (PA) and active play (AP) in preschool children, allows us to address PA promotion in this age group. Methods: we conducted a scoping review of 34 articles describing characteristics of SR: elements, information and attitudes and a meta-synthesis was elaborated with the main categories related to PA and AP. Results: parents and teachers are determinants for preschool children´s physical activity and active play, they perceive preschoolers as naturally “active”. Adults have negative perceptions about preschooler´s PA and this represents a barrier to promote their activity. Conclusions: Better knowledge of parents and teachers about physical activity recommendations for preschoolers and their own importance as role models, might facilitate their children´s participation in these activities, therefore it is important to include recomendations in every intervention intended to improve physical activity and active play of pre-schoolers. Our results showed that there is a need to study social representations of physical activity and active play in the natural settings of preschoolers in order to increase their physical activity and active play.