Teun Remmers

76 | Chapter 5 Moderating relationships between potential predictors of outside play Two combinations of variables demonstrated moderation between the perceived physical environment, parenting influences and social capital in the amount of outside play at age five and seven (Table 3, model 1-4). Perceived responsibility moderated the perceived environmental influence of functionality on outside play, consistently across all models (Table 3). When stratified, children from parents with high responsibility regarding their child’s outside play demonstrated that functionality was related with more outside play (0.04, 95%C.I.= −0.07 to 0.15), while among parents with low responsibility, functionality was related with a less outside play (-0.03, 95%C.I.= −0.09 to 0.04). Next to functionality also traffic safety showed interaction with perceived responsibility, but this only appeared after adjustment for main effects (Model 3) and slightly attenuated after adjustment for the other interactions (Model 4). Stratification showed that high responsibility strengthened the association between traffic safety and outside play (0.10, 95%C.I.= −0.03 to 0.23) versus (standardized beta 0.06, 95%C.I.= −0.003 to 0.12). Note that stratified models are adjusted for child age, child gender, and maternal education. In both strata, main effects were not statistically significant. Discussion This study has investigated the extent to which the social environment – expressed as parenting influences and social capital - moderated the relationship between the perceived physical environment and the development of children’s outside play between five and seven years. We have showed that accessibility of PA facilities, positive parental attitude towards PA and social capital were associated with more outside play, while parental concern with respect to child PA participation and especially restriction of screen time were related with less outside play. Although we only found a limited number of relatively weak interactions, this study demonstrated that the impact of the perceived physical environment might differ across levels of parenting responsibility. More specifically, this study showed that among children with parents with high responsibility towards their child PA, functionality of the neighborhood was related to more outside play; while in children with parents with low responsibility towards their child PA level, functionality was related to less outside play. The latter may reflect that functionality in the present study may be merely associated with a relative paucity of non-predefined public open space where children can play outside. This is supported by qualitative evidence that the usage of public open space depend on the child needing to cross busy roads (48). On the other hand, parents who feel responsible for the amount of their child PA may deliberately provide their child with the autonomy to play outside at spaces that they think are appropriate and safe.