Teun Remmers

Investigating moderation between determinants of children's outside play | 73 Results The total study sample consisted of 1875 children (Table 1). As almost all respondents are mothers of the child, the perceived influence of the respondent and partner on outside play is hereafter defined as perceived influence of the mother. In total, 91.1% of the participants had at least a mid-high educational level (i.e. higher vocational training, undergraduate programs, or Bachelor's degree) (46). Children had a mean age of 5.0 years (SD= 0.5) at baseline and 7.0 years (SD= 1.2) at follow-up and spent on average approximately 60 more minutes in outside play per week at seven years compared to five years of age (both boys and girls). Boys spent significantly more time in outside play than girls at both five and seven years (p < 0.01). There were significant differences in outside play duration between all seasons, at both five and seven years (p < 0.01 for both five and seven years, data not shown). Mean scores of each scale are presented in Apendix 2, Table S1. Table 1 : Characteristics of the study population Total Boys Girls N Mean (SD) n Mean (SD) n Mean (SD) Age at baseline (years) 1875 5.0 (0.5) 956 5.0 (0.5) 919 5.0 (0.5) Age at follow-up (years) 1407 7.0 (1.2) 714 7.1 (1.1) 693 7.0 (1.3) Gender of parent (female) 1830 97.8% 935 97.7% 895 97.7% Maternal education (missing n = 186) Low 4 0.2% 3 0.3% 1 0.1% Mid-low 155 8.7% 81 8.9% 74 8.4% Mid-high 687 38.4% 336 36.9% 351 39.9% High 943 52.7% 490 53.8% 453 51.5% Parent perceived neighborhood characteristics Satisfaction (range 1-5) 1875 3.8 (0.9) 956 3.8 (0.9) 919 3.8 (0.9) Functionality (range 1-5) 1875 3.0 (0.8) 956 3.0 (0.8) 919 3.0 (0.8) Traffic safety (range 1-5) 1875 3.3 (1.0) 956 3.2 (1,0) 919 3.3 (1.0) Attractiveness (range 1-5) 1875 3.9 (0.6) 956 3.9 (0.6) 919 3.9 (0.5) Accessibility (range 0-7) † 1875 3.4 (1.5) 956 3.4 (1.5) 919 3.4 (1.5) Outside play at 5 years ‡ 1875 619.2 (365.4) 956 648.6 (365.4)* 919 588.6 (363.1)* Outside play at 7 years ‡ 1317 683.5 (347.1) 664 708.8 (344.9)* 653 659.7 (347.9)* † according to the number of facilities (forest, school, playground, playing field, (unpaved) gym or exercise facility, swimming pool) accessible for physical activity within 10 minutes of walking. ‡ presented as minutes per week. * difference = p < 0.01. We investigated dropout differences between baseline and follow-up regarding all variables presented in Table 1 and Table S1. Respondents who dropped out were solely somewhat less restrictive of sedentary behaviors (mean score 3.02 versus 2.93; p =0.03), and had a somewhat older child (4.99 versus 5.08 years; p =0.01). At baseline, 97.8% of the respondents that filled in the questionnaire were mothers. Unfortunately we did not assess respondent’s gender at follow-up, and thus we were unable to account for potential differences in subsequent analyses. However, because in previous and subsequent annual questionnaires of the KOALA Birth Cohort the percentage of mothers