For many students, however, the break from the important routines and scaffolding provided by school days is a welcome excuse to slouch into a carefree, largely lazy January existence, characterised by virtually constant screentime and unhealthy snacks, which has the potential to affect their short-term and long-term physical and mental health.

With rates of childhood overweight, obesity, and mental health on the rise, it’s critical to understand how different interventions can support children’s health and wellbeing.

UniSA PhD researcher Emily Eglitis has spent the best part of the past year looking into how summer holiday programs can help children stay engaged and active, helping offset the many hours they spend in front of a screen.

Looking into data from 1500 participants aged 5-18, who’d spent at least a week in a summer holiday program, Eglitis and her team found the programs help promote healthier behaviours in children, reduced their sedentary behaviour and increased their physical activity.

“Summer holidays are a prime time for children to take a break and enjoy some well-earnt downtime. But this is also when kids tend to be less active,” Eglitis says.

“Screens are partly responsible for excess sedentary time, but so too is the change of pace, and the general nature of holidays – which is to rest, relax and have fun. The challenge is to keep kids active so that their health and wellbeing doesn’t suffer.”

Holiday programs, camps, day activities and sports clinics all encourage children to be more active and connected with their peers, Eglitis says.

While costs mean most families can only afford limited summer program access, more likely day-based and not the more US camps-style, even a few weeks spread over the summer break can be of enormous benefit.

“One of the reasons why we’re seeing positive results from summer programs is because they’re delivered in semi-structured environments like school – so they’re adult-supervised, segmented, and pre-planned – and children know what they’re doing and when,” Eglitis explains.

“The results show improved physical activity, fitness, and mental health for children, and importantly, are elevated among disadvantaged children from low socio-economic areas.”

PhD candidate Emily Eglitis says while teachers and schools appear to be doing a really good job, because during the school year kids are getting fitter, it's when they're away from school that they're slipping into bad habits and unhealthy practices.

The researcher says schools left empty over summer could perhaps be utilised to host programs to make them more affordable, while also offering a more familiar space for children.

“They’ve got the infrastructure, and potentially contract staff available,” she tells EducationHQ.

“I’m doing some surveys at the moment, and a common theme is that kids are more comfortable in an environment they’re familiar with, with their friends, so that’s a really worthwhile option, but cost is a massive barrier.

“In the surveys and interviews I’m doing at the moment, cost keeps coming up, especially for low income families.”

A common perception among parents in Australia, she says, is that summer holiday programs are something akin to a baby-sitting service and are not valued as they should be.

Senior researcher and UniSA colleague, Professor Carol Maher, agrees and says US-style summer holiday programs have the potential to help children maintain healthy rates of exercise, social connections, and wellbeing over a time when they are often at a loose end.

“But the challenge is to shift people’s perceptions of these programs as enrichment or childcare services, to a space where they’re considered valuable, and supported public health interventions.

“In essence, summer programs are often expensive and the families and kids who need them most aren’t always able to access them.

“We know summer holidays are a great time for kids to relax and have fun. But in today’s world of screens and technology, we must also encourage them to stay active, fit, and healthy over summer.”

Eglitis is in North Carolina at present on a Fulbright scholarship looking at the health impacts of summer YMCA-type programs on a range of children, some of them from disadvantaged backgrounds.

How to optimise any summer holiday programs is one thing she is closely looking at.

“We’ve got a group of stakeholders, so people who are care providers, or maybe they’re researchers or parents and teachers, and we’re asking them what would the ideal format look like in Australia,” she explains.

“…my sense would be, we want them there the majority of the week, maybe three or four days a week, depending on what their alternative is … it’s going to be a bit program and community specific.”

Eglitis remains ever-hopeful that gradually we’ll adopt more of an American view of the value and importance of summer holiday programs.

“I mean, it’s obvious to see how over time we’ve welcomed Halloween more and more in Australia,” she laughs.

“If it’s a good idea and it’s fun and the kids want to do it, I think it’s just about trying to persuade funding bodies that if we invest into early intervention at this end, then potentially, how much money are you saving down the track for correctional facilities, the health system, all of that, by keeping kids engaged with school and achieving better.”

The research team is now seeking participants to take part in a series of online surveys to better understand how summer holiday programs might work best in Australia. To find out more, please click here.