When the children began attending separate kindergarten classes — two kids per room — recess would turn into joyous reunions.
As shown in Table 1, the 17 schools varied in geographic location, school type, number of pupils and their grade-levels, socioeconomic status (based on parental income), square meters of schoolyard per child, recess rules and number of play facilities.
Several items showed restricted variability in responses (number of PE classes per week; days per week of recess at school; bicycle, taxi, school bus trips to/from school).
Approximately 60 minutes are dedicated to recess per day, being distributed over two to four breaks.
Students reported engaging in PE lessons for approximately 75 minutes per week, and around 100 minutes of recess time per week.
In France, primary school children experience, on average, up to 288 recess periods per year, 36 weeks per year, each recess lasting about 15 min.
Recess frequency per hour leveled off and slightly decreased with higher ambient temperatures (Fig. 4), indicated also by the significant effect of squared ambient temperature at the level of hour (Table 1).
Lunch breaks were included in the total number of recesses, and their length varied from 30 40 min. The total recess minutes per school day were 95 min in schools A and D, and 85 min in schools B and C. In school A, all recesses changed to compulsory outdoor recesses in the second academic year 2011 12 in the programme.
Incubation schedules were described by the dependent variables 'total recess time' (in minutes per hour), 'recess frequency' (number of recesses per hour) and average recess length (minutes per hour) for both uni- or biparental clutches.
This is also supported by findings from quantitative studies where more play space per child was positively associated with recess PA [ 39, 40].
