Children’s access to outdoors in early childhood education and care centres in China during the COVID pandemic

Abstract China has undergone rapid development in early childhood education and outdoor pedagogy in recent times. Importantly, it was the first country to detect COVID-19 cases and introduce lockdowns and other restrictions. Chinese early childhood educators had no opportunities to learn from their peers in other countries regarding how to respond to COVID-19 restrictions. It is unknown how these restrictions may have impacted children’s access to the outdoors. The current study examined whether there had been changes in children’s outdoor time, access to the outdoor space, and restrictions imposed on children’s outdoor play. We then examined if making changes or remaining the same was influenced by educator qualifications, professional development related to outdoor pedagogy, educators’ tolerance of risk in play, and staff-child ratios. Most educators reported that the amount of time children spent outdoors and their access to the outdoor space remained the same compared to before the pandemic. A greater number of educators indicated restrictions were imposed on children’s outdoor play due to the pandemic. A series of ordinal regression analyses indicated that educators with a higher tolerance of risk in play were more likely to increase children’s time spent outdoors and access to outdoor space and impose fewer restrictions on children’s outdoor play during the pandemic. A higher staff-child ratio was associated with increasing outdoor time and outdoor space. The findings contribute to the understanding of how external factors influence opportunities for children to play outdoors and provide directions for future professional development programs and risk-reframing interventions.