Play equipment in Australian children’s homes: Can we refine interventions to support girls’ engagement with physical activity? (ICGS, 2025) · ICGS Research Library

Title

Play equipment in Australian children’s homes: Can we refine interventions to support girls’ engagement with physical activity? (ICGS, 2025)

Author

(2025)

Year Published

2025

Description

Duncombe, S. L., Moss, K. M., Tooth, L. R., & Mielke, G. I. (2025). Sex differences in the play equipment found in Australian children’s homes. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 34 , 1283-1291. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-025-03037-8 .

Research has shown that the different types of play equipment present in children’s homes can be associated with children’s physical activity levels. This study by researchers at the University of Queensland, Australia, investigates differences in play equipment found in Australian homes based on the gender of the child/children. The authors identify links between gender and the type of equipment present in homes, and highlight the impact of this on children’s engagement with physical activity. They suggest that early, gender-specific physical activity interventions are needed to target gender disparity in physical activity. Given the well-documented benefits of physical activity for child and adolescent wellbeing, early and positive interventions to encourage girls’ holistic participation are essential (Duncombe et al., 2025, p. 1284).

This research was drawn from the “Mothers and their Children’s Health Study”, which is part of the “Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health”. This included information on 5,314 children from 2,805 families, which was categorised by the number of children in the family, age, and gender makeup. This is a substantially larger study than much of the previous research published on this topic, and also considers the context of siblings in family groups. Participants were provided with a list of play equipment and asked to indicate which of the items were available to children in their homes. The list of equipment provided to participants was “balls; basketball or netball rings; bats, racquets, or golf clubs; climbing equipment or suitable trees; bicycles, tricycles, or scooters; skateboards or ripsticks; skipping ropes; swimming pools; trampolines; slides or swings; and electronic play equipment” (Duncombe et al., 2025, p. 1285).

The researchers initially observed broad trends linking the gender composition of children in the household to the type of play equipment in the home. Families with all boys or mixed siblings had a higher prevalence of play equipment that included “skateboards/ripsticks, bats, racquets and golf clubs than those without a boy” (Duncombe et al., 2025, p. 1283). Families with girls or mixed siblings had a higher prevalence of play equipment in the home that included “skipping ropes, slides and swings than those without a girl” (Duncombe et al., 2025, p. 1283). Yet there were no differences observed in “balls, bicycles, trampoline, pools, or active electronic games in homes” (Duncombe et al., 2025, p. 1283).

The findings were promising in relation to toys associated with active play. Previous studies have shown that toys associated with movement have typically been present in family groups with boys. Yet this study shows equal amounts of all-girl and all-boy families with toys associated with movement. This is an important finding and one that prompted the researchers to question what factors influenced this outcome (Duncombe et al., 2025, p. 1288). It indicates that providing girls with access to these types of toys could be beneficial to “augment their physical activity levels”, while maintaining awareness of how girls will use the toys, as this may differ to boys (Duncombe et al., 2025, p. 1289).

These findings reinforce earlier research showing different play patterns and behaviours among girls and boys. However, it also gives a new perspective to this topic by considering the home environment and potential influence of siblings. The authors also suggest this is an opportunity to consider the role of gendered parenting and societal pressures in children’s toy preferences. This can be addressed through advocacy for “less gendered toy marketing and preschool environments”, including the promotion of gender-neutral spaces from a young age (Duncombe et al., 2025, p. 1288). Regardless of how much influence in children’s choice of play equipment can be attributed to child preference, societal norms or parent influence, the implications for physical activity levels are still crucial to understand in order to address disparities in physical activity.

There was no difference between families with mixed sex siblings and all-boy/all-girl families and the types of play equipment/activity levels found in the home. This indicates that “a single child of one sex may influence the equipment in a home” (Duncombe et al., 2025, p. 1288). There was also no clear correlation between levels of physical activity with/without siblings. The number of differences in play equipment did increase as children aged, which is consistent with existing research. Preferences for gender neutral toys also decreased significantly as child age rose. This could be due to socialisation pressures and early social environments that encourage