Table 2.
Description of playground usage by observed gender, age group, interaction type and play behaviour type across the full playground and within each playground section.
| Playground Sections | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Playground (n = 1332) | Music/Sensory (n = 116) | Early Childhood (n = 205) | Freestanding Play Equipment (n = 214) | Main Structure (n = 797) | |
| Gender * | |||||
| Male | 642 (48.2) | 40 (34.5) | 104 (50.7) | 88 (41.1) | 410 (51.4) |
| Female | 690 (51.8) | 76 (65.5) | 101 (49.3) | 126 (58.9) | 387 (48.6) |
| Age Group | |||||
| 0–5 | 588 (44.1) | 65 (56.0) | 119 (58.1) | 93 (43.5) | 311 (39.0) |
| 6–12 | 690 (51.8) | 48 (41.4) | 78 (38.1) | 97 (45.3) | 467 (58.6) |
| 13+ | 54 (4.1) | 3 (2.6) | 8 (3.9) | 24 (11.2) | 19 (2.4) |
| Activity Level | |||||
| Non-Active | 273 (20.5) | 41 (35.3) | 63 (30.7) | 106 (49.5) | 63 (7.9) |
| Active | 941 (70.7) | 71 (61.2) | 127 (62.0) | 91 (42.5) | 652 (81.8) |
| Very Active | 118 (8.9) | 4 (3.5) | 15 (7.3) | 17 (7.9) | 82 (10.3) |
| Play Behaviour Type | |||||
| Functional | 1175 (88.2) | 102 (87.9) | 172 (83.9) | 190 (88.8) | 711 (89.2) |
| Dramatic/Fantasy | 35 (2.6) | 2 (1.7) | 16 (7.8) | 0 (0) | 17 (2.1) |
| Games with Rules | 44 (3.3) | 2 (1.7) | 4 (2.0) | 2 (0.9) | 36 (4.5) |
| Constructive | 3 (0.2) | 3 (2.6) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) |
| Non-Play | 71 (5.3) | 7 (6.0) | 13 (6.3) | 21 (9.8) | 30 (3.8) |
| Waiting | 4 (0.3) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1 (0.5) | 3 (0.4) |
| Interaction Type | |||||
| Peer Play | 636 (47.7) | 47 (40.5) | 108 (52.7) | 129 (60.3) | 352 (44.2) |
| Play with an Adult | 352 (26.4) | 42 (36.2) | 62 (30.2) | 49 (22.9) | 199 (25.0) |
| Solitary | 292 (21.9) | 27 (23.3) | 25 (12.2) | 26 (12.1) | 214 (26.9) |
| Parallel | 52 (3.9) | 0 (0) | 10 (4.9) | 10 (4.7) | 32 (4.0) |
Note. Results presented as the proportion of observations on the full playground and within each section; count (%). * While we have coded gender using the terminology from the original SOPARC tool, we recognize that gender is a social construct that exists on spectrum and thus we use these terms with caution.