Background: Research suggests that blue spaces (e.g., beaches, lakes, rivers) have a plethora of both physical (e.g., healthier heart) and psychological (e.g., enhanced emotional wellbeing) health benefits for adults. However, research on the associations between blue space and wellbeing among children is scarce. With limited research on blue space exposure and wellbeing among children, it is currently not well understood whether different blue space environments, or different interactions with blue space, provide different benefits. As such, the current research aimed to examine whether different blue space environments (i.e., natural coastal, natural inland, and artificial man-made) had different effects on children’s affect, and whether different play types (e.g., physical, exploratory, imaginative) influence these associations.
Methods: A total of 72 children aged 7-12 years who lived in New South Wales, Australia, self-reported affect before and after a visit to a blue space environment via the Children’s Feeling Scale. Children’s play was also recorded using the Tool for Observing Play Outdoors (TOPO) for a 30-minute period after arriving at the blue space location.
Results: The results showed that exposure to blue space improved affect; however, the increase in affect was only significant for those visiting an inland blue space location (t = 2.92, p =.008), and not for those visiting a coastal beach (t = .952, p = .351) or inland water-playground (t = -.302, p =.765). Additionally, there were a number of significant interactions between type of play and type of blue space, suggesting that different play types influence the associations between type of blue space and affect. For example, bio play significantly predicted affect for children visiting water-playgrounds (β = .71, p = .006) and natural inland (β = .46, p = .032).
Conclusions: The current study may have implications on how local governments can improve water playground designs to promote children to participate in certain play types (e.g., imaginative, expressive). Further research could also observe play in other blue space environments, such as streams of water or aquatic centres to see if similar wellbeing outcomes are found.
| Date of Award | 2022 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Awarding Institution | - Western Sydney University
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| Supervisor | Rhiannon White (Supervisor) |
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