Table 4.

Findings from semi-structured interviews—themes, subthemes and selected quotes.

Themes	Subthemes	Selected Quotes
1. Play areas	1.1. Public parks and play grounds	1.1.1. Facilitator: “That park is spacy and nice and there′s lots of things to do there—work out, swing, slide, and there′s also a labyrinth where you can have some time-out alone and enjoy its beauty or you can play games with friends” (girl, 6th grade, inner-city neighborhood)
		1.1.2. Facilitator: “That park is fun to hang out in, it′s spacy and there′s lots of things to do there—swing, work out, play ball, or just sit on the grass and chat with friends” (girl, 6th grade, suburban neighborhood)
		1.1.3. Barrier: “It’s boring in that park, there’s nothing to do there—only 1–2 swings, and some fitness facilities and that’s it I would have wanted to have more play facilities there” (boy, 5th grade, inner-city neighborhood)
	1.2. The creation of informal play settings in common areas of residential buildings	1.2.1. Other: “The tenants in our building turned the buildings shelter into some kind of an indoor playground—they brought old things that they didn′t use anymore (beds, selves, sofas) and when it′s cold outside we play there, and when it′s hot we play in the building′s lobby/entrance hall this way only we (the buildings tenants) can play there because we have the code to enter the building, and other children that we don′t know can′t come in” (girl, 6th grade, inner-city neighborhood)
		1.2.2. Other: “We have a huge storeroom that we′ve built in our house, where we keep all kinds of big toys (for example, ride on toys) and all of the children of our neighbors come and play with the toys sometimes, when its rainy we met at the storeroom and play tabletop games, and if it′s not rainy we play at the buildings outdoor entrance hall in our building area we can play freely, and nobody tells us what to do, unlike at the park where parents of little children won′t let us play because they are afraid that we′ll hurt their little children. So the park turned into a place for little children, and I have more fun playing in my building than at the park” (girl, 6th grade, inner city neighborhood)
2. Other people	2.1. Presence/absence of other people (general)	2.1.1. Facilitator: "That park is safe because there′s always a lot of people out there so if something happens to you, they can give you help” (girl, 5th grade, traditional neighborhood)
		2.1.2. Facilitator: “It′s safe there because there are always people around, so if you fall people can help you there are always people there because there′s a preschool in the area so the teachers can also help you and if, for example, dangerous people come there—they can′t harm you because there are other people in the area that can call the police” (girl, 6th grade, suburban neighborhood)
		2.1.3. Barrier: “Usually there are not many people in the streets where I live, so if someone attacks you there won′t be anybody to call for help” (girl, 6th grade, inner-city neighborhood)
	2.2. Presence of intimidating groups (older kids) in parks	2.2.1. Barrier: “Many things happened to kids from my class there (in a recreational facility) for example, some boys from my class went to play there in the afternoon, they put their cellular phones aside, and some older kids came, grabbed their phones and harassed them, but they (the boys from my class) managed to run away, but still, their cellular phones were stolen” (girl, 5th grade, suburban neighborhood)
		2.2.2. Barrier: “I′m not allowed to walk in that park in the dark it′s either empty, or you have big kids who harass you one time I walked there in the dark and big kids threw detonators at me” (boy, 6th grade, suburban neighborhood)
	2.3. Presence of parents/grandparents with young children in parks	2.3.1. Barrier: “That park is boring and not fun and there are a lot of old people there It bothers me when older people are in the park because they don′t let us have fun—they come with their little children and babies and they take them down the slides, and one time they called the police because we were playing ball and they thought that we didn′t let their children go down the slides” (boy, 5th grade, inner-city neighborhood)
		2.3.2. Barrier: “In that park the parents or the grandparents of the little children tell us: ′there are little children here, you′re not allowed to play ball, you’re not allowed to be here′, so it turns into a place for small children because we’re not allowed to play there” (boy, 6th grade, inner-city neighborhood)
3. Social norms	3.1. Low social acceptability of OP	3.1.1. Barrier: “I′m not allowed to hang out in the streets without notifying my parents about it because my mom tells me that I′m not a ‘street kid′ I′m allowed to play outdoors for something like two hours, but not for all day long ” (girl, 5th grade, inner-city neighborhood)
		3.1.2. Barrier: “There are older kids there that play with fire and do things that are not for our age they are ′street kids′ I don′t like it there there are always kids that curse and harass other kids, one time a boy threw a water balloon with mud at me” (girl, 5th grade, suburban neighborhood)
	3.2. Shift from active outdoors to passive indoors leisure	3.2.1. Other: “We don′t play outdoors anymore, we go out together—for bowling, the movies, or just go out to get ice-cream—we do that instead of meeting at the park to play ball” (girl, 6th grade, suburban neighborhood)
		3.2.2. Other: “I stopped going to that park because the kids in my class don’t play outdoors anymore, instead, they go visit other kids in their home or go to the movies together” (girl, 6th grade, inner-city neighborhood)