e random times for each of 4 consecutive week days. The activity diary consists of 12 questions (9 multiple choice, 3 Visual Analogue Scales [VAS]). The multiple choice questions determine who is recording the information, what the child is doing and using, who the child is with, if the television is on and whether they are indoors or outdoors. The VAS questions are used to estimate, 1) activity level, 2) frequency of movement and 3) intensity of involvement in an activity. Questionnaire items were developed from literature on children's after school activities and in conjunction with a workgroup of paediatric health care professionals, researchers working with young children, and parents of children in the relevant age group. The activities were chosen to represent activities in which 5- to 7-year-olds commonly engage during after-school hours. The aim was to create a questionnaire that could be answered in 1 to 2 minutes. Pilot testing revealed response time ranged from 0.5 to 3 minutes, with a shorter response time as respondents became increasingly familiar with the questions.
Parents record responses to diary questions on a Palm Pilot Z22 (Palm Inc., Sunnyvale, CA) loaded with Experience Sampling Program (ESP) software http://www.experience-sampling.org. For each diary entry, the Palm emits a signal that continues for 3 minutes before the device is switched off and the entry is marked as a non-response. Once the survey commences, a 3-minute lag of non-activity is allowed to accommodate interruptions before switching off. Any questions completed prior to the non-activity are saved.
Parents are instructed in use of the Palm in a personal meeting with the researchers or through a step-by-step instruction sheet included with the Palm pilots when they are distributed to the parents. Parents are provided with a contact number, should they encounter any problems with the devices. On the morning of first day of data collection, researchers activate the software and place the devices in the participating children's schoolbags together with the accompanying information and written instructions. After the 4 days of data collection, parents return the Palm Pilot to their child's school. Data from the Palm Pilots are downloaded onto PCs using the ESP desktop software and stored as .txt files.
Digital hard drive video cameras (Sony DCR-SR65, http://www.sony.com.au) are used together with Bluetooth wireless microphones (ECH-HW1, http://www.sony.com.au) to capture social interactions and what the children are doing during recess. Children are videotaped for 15 minutes during recess by an unobtrusive camera person who does not interact in any way with the children. No videotaping occurs during bad weather when the children are indoors during recess; researchers also avoid taping children during lunch or snack time. The videos are transferred to computers using the accompanying software and stored as .mpg files. After conversion to .mov files, the resulting data are coded using Studio Code (v 4.2.4, http://www.studiocode.com). The coding scheme is developed specifically for this study and captures categories of play and non-play, as well as quantification of social interactions.
Children and Teachers' Perceptions of Competence and Social Acceptance
The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children (PSPCSAYC) (Harter and Pike, 1984)  is included to assess two domains of competence (physical and academic) and two domains of acceptance (peer and maternal). Administration of the PSPCSAYC to children involves responding to four choices elicited by presenting paired pictorial items featuring children who are skilled or less skilled in a particular domain and asking who the child is most like. Further probing occurs to see if they see themselves as a lot like the child or just a little. The questions are devised to guard against generation of socially desirable responses.
The teacher rating scale involves a description of specific skills in each domain, with the exception of maternal acceptance. Teachers r