Understanding the context of children's schoolyard activity can inform approaches by which to increase physical activity participation. Two major approaches exist for assessing this context- based on location or activity type. Location-based methods (e.g., Global Positioning Systems) may miss variations in activity type if children participate in multiple types of activities in each location (e.g., children engage in something other than playing with sand in a sandbox). Activity-type based methods for contextualizing activity (e.g., Observational System for Recording Physical Activity in Children, OSRAC) capture activity type, but not location, and children might participate in the same type(s) of activities in multiple schoolyard locations. The purpose of this study was to compare location- vs activity type-based approaches to characterizing children's schoolyard behavior. Preschoolers' (N = 50) schoolyard location and activity type (based on OSRAC) were video-coded and matched with physical activity monitor data (counts/s) for 1 outdoor period (~43 min). The results showed that multiple activities occurred within each location (median = 5), but the predominant activity typically matched the expected activity type (e.g., 66.9% fixed equipment play in the fixed equipment location). Children spent the majority of their time in open space (type or location; 37.6%–48.9%), but there were differences in the setting that promoted the most physical activity (teacher arranged type, but fixed equipment location). Activity types elicited varying physical activity levels depending on location (e.g., open space activities in open spaces vs on paths: 40.9 vs 60.7 counts/s). Activity type- and location-based approaches provide some similar, but potentially additive information about schoolyard behavior, which is an important methodological consideration for future studies.

了解儿童校园活动的背景可以为增加身体活动参与的方法提供信息。存在两种基于位置或活动类型来评估此上下文的主要方法。如果儿童在每个位置参加多种类型的活动（例如，儿童在沙盒中玩沙以外的其他活动），则基于位置的方法（例如，全球定位系统）可能会错过活动类型的变化。基于活动类型的活动情境化方法（例如，用于记录儿童身体活动的观察系统，OSRAC）捕获的是活动类型，而不是位置，并且儿童可能在多个校园位置参与相同类型的活动。这项研究的目的是比较基于位置和活动类型的方法来表征儿童的校园行为。学龄前儿童ñ = 50）对校园位置和活动类型（基于OSRAC）进行了视频编码，并与1个室外时段（〜43分钟）的身体活动监测数据（计数/秒）匹配。结果表明，每个位置都发生了多个活动（中位数= 5），但是主要活动通常与预期活动类型匹配（例如，固定设备位置的固定设备发挥66.9％）。儿童大部分时间都花在开放空间中（类型或位置； 37.6％–48.9％），但在促进最大程度体育锻炼的环境中存在差异（老师安排的类型，但设备位置固定）。活动类型会根据位置引起不同的身体活动水平（例如，开放空间与路径中的开放空间活动：40.9 vs 60.7计数/秒）。基于活动类型和位置的方法提供了一些类似的方法，