The association between park visits, outdoor play and child social-emotional competency in a multi-ethnic, urban cohort

• 34 % of children do not play outdoors on school days; 20 % don’t play outdoors on weekends. • Outdoor play was associated with improved child social-emotional competency. • Stratification showed associations varied by ethnicity and weekday / weekend use. • Ethnic origin groups gained benefits of outdoor play at different times of the week. • Providing safe local places for children’s play may improve their mental health. Increased access to greenspaces and frequent outdoor play has been shown to be associated with improved social-emotional competency (SEC) in children, but this finding may not be generalisable to all communities and contexts. This study undertook a cross-sectional analysis of 2568 children (7.1–12.6 years old; mean 9.8) assessing the association between child-reported outdoor play and park visits, and two aspects of SEC in a sample from Born in Bradford (BiB), a multi-ethnic urban cohort in the UK. SEC was measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) Total Difficulties Score (TDS), and the SDQ prosocial subscale. Increased outdoor play was linearly associated with improved scores in both aspects of SEC; park visits were predominately null or inconsistently associated with SEC. Stratification by ethnicity and area deprivation displayed that associations were generally stronger in the White origin compared to Asian origin populations. However, stratification also showed that different ethnic groups may gain benefits from outdoor play at different times of the week, reflecting different uses of leisure time and cultural practices. There was some evidence that associations were stronger in the least deprived populations compared to the most deprived populations. Outdoor play may be an important contributor to SEC in children; however, effects vary by ethnic origin and area deprivation, showing the association is influenced by factors such as demographics and place. Ensuring children’s environments offer safe, culturally appropriate, local spaces for children to play, and increasing opportunities for children to play outdoors has the potential to improve children’s SEC.