Relationship between the Timing of Recess Breaks and Discipline Referrals among Elementary Children
Abstract
Following recess, children’s behavior typically improves and externalizing behavior decreases. We sought to determine whether multiple recess breaks and their timing leads to reduced discipline referrals. Participants included 607 elementary students who engaged in two 15-minute recess breaks each day. Discipline referrals were coded by type, time, and time elapsed after the most recent break. Findings revealed a complex picture of the role recess timing may play in decreasing discipline issues for children. As time elapsed, the odds of discipline referral increased for verbal disruptive and truancy-related behaviors. Results support multiple recess periods throughout the day, preferably every 90 minutes.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The number of discipline referrals increased with the passing of time from a recess period.
“Additionally, the number of discipline referrals increased with the passing of time from a recess period [17], meaning there were more behavioral problems the longer after a recess period.”
From When to Eat and When to Play: Variations in Recess and Lunch Scheduling Within a State 40‐Min Recess Policy (2025) · cites this paper as [17]
Cites
Skiba, R. J., Horner, R. H., Chung, C.-G., Rausch, M. K., May, S. L., & Tobin, T. (2011) · School Psychology Review · doi:10.1080/02796015.2011.12087730 · Cited by 1,593 · cited 2× · see citing works
“No significant difference by sex or race/ethnicity was found, although a multitude of previous studies have found higher levels of disciplinary referrals for African American and Hispanic male students (Skiba et al., 2011; Skiba et al., 2002; Vaughn et al., 2014).”
Physical activity during school recess
Ridgers, N. D., Salmon, J., Parrish, A.-M., Stanley, R. M., & Okely, A. D. (2012) · American Journal of Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2012.05.019 · Cited by 332 · see citing works
School Recess and Group Classroom Behavior
Barros, R. M., Silver, E. J., & Stein, R. E. K. (2009) · Pediatrics · doi:10.1542/peds.2007-2825 · Cited by 254 · see citing works
Spruit, A., Assink, M., van Vugt, E., van der Put, C., & Stams, G. J. (2016) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2016.03.006 · Cited by 250 · see citing works
Impact of Recess on Classroom Behavior: Group Effects and Individual Differences
Jarrett, O. S., Maxwell, D. M., Dickerson, C., Hoge, P., Davies, G., & Yetley, A. (1998) · The Journal of Educational Research · doi:10.1080/00220679809597584 · Cited by 209 · cited 3× · see citing works
“Physical activity opportunities in today’s schools have declined in order to meet academic requirements (Barros, Silver, & Stein, 2009; Jarrett et al., 1998; Pellegrini, Huberty, & Jones, 1995); yet, empirical evidence indicates a consistently positive relationship between academic performance,…”
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Burson, S. L., & Castelli, D. M. (2022) · Journal of School Health · doi:10.1111/josh.13217 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Educational outcomes of recess in elementary school children: A mixed-methods systematic review
Howie, E. K., Perryman, K. L., Moretta, J., & Cameron, L. (2023) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0294340 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Cimino, S., Maremmani, A., & Cerniglia, L. (2025) · Societies · doi:10.3390/soc15120354 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Howie, E. K., Harden, S. M., Lemus, J., Stone, B., Barr‐Anderson, D. J., & Long, C. R. (2025) · Journal of School Health · doi:10.1111/josh.70055 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Additionally, the number of discipline referrals increased with the passing of time from a recess period [17], meaning there were more behavioral problems the longer after a recess period.”
Wilson, J. (2021) · doi:10.13023/etd.2021.159
“…on previous research related to the impact of doubling the amount of recess on elementary student disciplinary referrals and achievement over time and the relationship between timing of recess breaks and discipline referrals among elementary children (H. Erwin et al., 2019; Fedewa et al., 2021).”
Background
- Authors
- Fedewa, Erwin, Wilson, & Ahn
- Venue
- Children, Youth and Environments
- Publisher
- Project MUSE
- Published
- 2021
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 165
- ISSN
- 1546-2250 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3138712269
- Cited by
- 6
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 1.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Children Youth and Environments (publishedVersion)
- Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Education Discipline and Inequality
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Behavioral and Psychological Studies
- Social Sciences › Education › Early Childhood Education and Development
- Keywords
- discipline referrals, elementary school students, externalizing problems, truancy, student discipline, child behavior
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
