School Recess Scoping Review Project - YEDI affiliated
Hannah R. Thompson, Professor
Public Health
Open. Apprentices needed for the fall semester. Enter your application online beginning August 21st. The deadline to apply is Monday, August 31st, 4pm.
School recess is an evidence-backed approach to increase school-based opportunities for students to play, accrue necessary physical activity, and socialize with peers, to the benefit of their physical, academic, and socioemotional health. As such, the Centers for Disease Control recommend at least 20 min of daily recess in elementary schools. However, although almost 90% of schools in the US reported following this recommendation, recess practices vary across regions. Among low-income elementary schools, only 56% of schools reported at least 20 minutes of daily recess, with variations across schools characteristics.
Little is known about what barriers and facilitators influence school recess implementation across settings. For example, although state-level physical education and recess legislation is highly prevalent, most laws do not include accountability-related language and virtually none include funding-related language, which may affect external supports for recess. The implementation of recess might also not be uniformly understood among parents, teachers, recess monitors, and school administrators. Physical and environmental barriers, such as extreme heat, may also affect how recess is implemented. We are therefore studying the extent and type of evidence in relation to barriers and facilitators to implementing school recess through a scoping review.
If you are selected for this research project, you will also be invited to join the Youth Equity Discovery Initiative (YEDI) Program, a research mentorship program that aims to build supportive pathways into research careers, service, and leadership addressing adolescent wellbeing. The year-long program provides weekly skill-building workshops, cascading mentorship, and professional development training to a cohort of 20-30 undergraduate scholars working on faculty-led youth equity research projects (like this one). Past scholars have benefitted from YEDI’s mentorship and professional development opportunities (including faculty and graduate student speakers). The program culminates in an end-of-year research poster symposium. Participation in the YEDI Program is not required for this research project, but is strongly encouraged.
The 2026-2027 YEDI cohort will meet on Tuesdays from 11:00am - 12:30pm beginning September 22nd. In order to take part in the YEDI program, you MUST be able to attend the workshops at this time. As a YEDI scholar, you will sign up for a PH198 (independent research) class and receive 1 unit in addition to the units you will receive for this URAP project. For any questions about YEDI, please contact Marieka Schotland at mschotland@berkeley.edu or visit our website (https://i4y.berkeley.edu/youth-equity-discovery-initiative-yedi-program).
Role: - Attending online training sessions on screening and extracting information from selected studies (2 sessions, in total)
- Screening study titles and abstracts to identify studies that meet the eligibility criteria for inclusion in the review
- Extracting information about the methods and results of selected studies
- Attending online meetings (1-3 times/month) to discuss study progress
Qualifications: - Strong interest in youth health and school programs; - Comfort with reading and synthesizing information from scientific papers; - Ability to work both independently and collaboratively; - Ability to time manage and complete assignments on time; - Excellent organization and high attention to detail
We value equity and inclusion, and highly encourages students from different backgrounds, identities and experiences to apply.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Davrina Rianda, Post-Doc
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Off-Campus Research Site: Remote
Biological & Health Sciences Social Sciences