Physical Activity Differences Among Children Attending a Summer Day Camp

Background/Purpose: Research indicates that body mass index (BMI) increases and fitness declines more rapidly during the summer months than during the school year for some groups of children and that discrepancies in weight status between black or Hispanic vs. white children are largely attributable to summer weight gain (D. T. Smith, Bartee, Dorozynski, & Carr, 2009; von Hippel, Powell, Downey, & Rowland, 2007). The reasons for this have not been elucidated but researchers speculate that the less structured environment may result in both increased caloric consumption and decreased physical activity (Downey, 2007; Mahoney, 2011; von Hippel et al., 2007) and recreational settings such as summer camps provide an opportunity for structured physical activity during non-school months that may address these concerns (Mowen & Baker, 2009). The purpose of this study was to determine if participants in a summer camp met physical activity guidelines and to examine whether physical activity levels differed by gender, race, socio-economic status, or weight status. 

Method: Height, weight, demographic information, and accelerometer-measured physical activity were obtained from 132 participants aged 6-12 years (mean = 8.42 years, SD = 1.69) at six day camps in a mid-sized Southern city.  The majority of participants were male (55.3%) and non- Hispanic Black (63.6%).  Mean BMI percentile was 68.4 (SD= 26.26). 

Analysis/Results: Participants engaged in an average of 57.7 minutes (SD = 26.54) of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during the 8 hours of camp each day. Almost 40 percent (39.8%) of campers met the physical activity guidelines of at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during the camp day, but there were gender differences. Over 50 percent of the boys (Mdn = 62.5 minutes) attained the recommended 60 minutes of MVPA while less than 25 percent of girls (75^thpercentile = 58.3 minutes) did. Results of an ANOVA analysis indicated that males accumulated an average of 15.8 minutes more of MVPA per day than females and obese children engaged in 15.06 fewer minutes of MVPA than normal-weight children.

Conclusions:

Summer day camp affords opportunities for many children to attain the recommended levels of MVPA but that girls and obese children engage in lower levels of physical activity in this context than do boys and normal weight children. Camp administrators and staff should pay particular attention to creating environments that promote activity among less active participants.