Contemporary Mothering and the Provision of Children’s Active Outdoor Play

Abstract

Children’s active outdoor play (AOP) is an unstructured physical activity that takes place outdoors during a child’s free time. Despite its association with health and well-being benefits (e.g. increases levels of physical activity, improves psychosocial skills), growing evidence suggests that children are playing less outdoors in comparison to previous generations (Clements, 2004; Witten et al., 2013). This trend is generating a number of studies aiming to examine its decline. Parents, especially mothers, are identified as significant actors in increasing children’s opportunities for AOP in order to prevent adverse health and developmental outcomes. Although parents have an important role in socializing children to leading healthy lifestyles, few studies have documented their difficulties in providing children with opportunities for AOP. Drawing on a Foucauldian approach, this qualitative study focuses on the social, cultural, and structural factors that shape children’s opportunities for AOP within the family context and examines the salient factors of contemporary motherhood that impact children’s AOP. Twenty-one mothers from the Ottawa-Gatineau region took part in an in-depth semistructured interview. The analysis shows that many aspects of contemporary mothering and the multiple roles occupied by mothers make it difficult to provide opportunities for AOP. A key finding is that mothers struggle to prioritize children’s AOP due to discursive conflicts that stem from their roles as risk managers, time managers, and screen time managers. Results provide crucial data for future initiatives aimed at increasing children’s levels of physical activity within a family setting. By focusing on the lived experiences of mothers, this study provides recommendations to promote AOP despite the challenges of contemporary family life.