In This Version:

The Power of Play
2007 Trends from Health and Wellness Approach
Impact of 5 Youth Transitions
Dieting – No More
By the Numbers: Patterns and Preferences
Aging Americans and How They Choose to Live

The Power of Play

Now here’s a book title that we have always believed to be true: The Power of Play: How Spontaneous, Imaginative Activities Lead to Happier, Healthier Children.

A warning from the book’s author, David Elkind, a Professor of Child Development at Tufts University:

children’s play—their inborn disposition for curiosity, imagination, and fantasy—is being silenced in the high-tech, commercialized world we have created.

You might almost think this professor has been overhearing the conversations among some park and recreation professionals who bemoan the loss of spontaneous pick-up games that at one time filled neighborhood parks and backyards everywhere. Other pointed and significant quotes from this expert includes the following:

Over the past two decades, children have lost 12 hours of free time a week, including 8 hours of unstructured play and outdoor activities. In contrast, the amount of time spent in organized sports has doubled, and the number of minutes children devote to passive spectator leisure, not counting TV but including sports viewing, has increased fivefold from 30 minutes to over 3 hours.

The health consequences for children resulting from the disappearance of play (obesity, attention deficit disorder) are already apparent.

Another interesting statistic from this book: On a typical day, a child is six times more likely to play a computer game than ride a bike.

Editor’s Note: It is very time to take back the power and potential of play – for all human beings – but most especially for children – the time is right!

(Source: The Power of Play: How Spontaneous, Imaginative Activities Lead to Happier, Healthier Children. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2007)

Top Ten Trends of 2007 from the Natural Marketing Institute

The Natural Marketing Institute (NMI) announced its annual Top Ten Trends for the coming year. The over-riding theme for the coming theme is control – consumer’s desire for control of everything – healthy lifestyle, finances, etc. NMI's Specific Top Ten Trends of 2007:

• The Age of the Individual: The backlash to mass marketing and a declining trust in the traditional authorities of church, government and the corporation, adding to a desire on the part of consumers for content, products and services that are "made just for me." Think Puma's custom-designed sneakers and Toyota's customizable Scion. This trend carries over to health decisions making process and increases in "condition specific" supplements reflect further expansion in the "made for me" culture.
• Seize the Moment: Life is short so why wait. This trend radiates from Gen Next who are always moving on to the “next” thing and maturing baby boomers who hear the refrain “if not now, when” internally. Faster product lifecyles will result as consumers seek the thrill of discovering something new and special.
• A Deeper Values Experience: The previous trend cited reflects people’s desire for a high level of experience but that desire for experiences is moving beyond materialism to include fundamental core values. Examples include: ecotourism, cause marketing programs, and the growing importance of social marketing among others.
• Back to the Future: The pendulum swings and over-massification results in people longing for the back-to-the-future simplicity, authenticity, and a belief that quality is better than quantity. “Small and authentic” are the watch words of the future.
• The New Fear Factor: Who can you trust? The scandals just keep coming, religious, government and corporate institutions. When coupled with the practices and technology of a post 9/11 world, we are becoming a fear-based society with consumers attempting to take ever-greater control of their environment, property, time and safety.
• It's Reigning Men: What’s the fastest growing category in the bath and body care market? Men's personal care products. The proliferation of these products will cut across all generations and will move into mainstream retail venues such as grocery stores, drug stores, and specialty shops.
• The New Consumer-Centric Media: The advent of new media outlets puts people in much greater control of the communication world. Websites make so many things happen such as customization of products and tight-knit, virtual communities. The Internet is a significant source of shopping for health and natural products.
• Memory Fast Lane: Today’s world includes so much information, many distractions, and an insatiable demand for knowledge and learning as keys to self-actualization on the part of consumers. The result is an emphasis upon optimizing and maintaining brain power. This is not just a boomer problem as all age groups report problems with concentration and memory.
• Working Women Revisited: The pendulum swings back after years of heavy duty lifting by women in the work force. Flex time and dinner time are rushing to the forefront. The study that linked women entering the workforce with the onset of diabetes among children is just the tip of the iceberg. More Americans are committing to eating dinner at home together at least three times a week.
• The Centenarian Century: People over 100 years of age is the fastest-growing demographic group. As the baby boomers become the first large wave of older adults with such potential it raises all types of concerns related to healthcare, insurance, social services, and of course, financial resources required to maintain this trend.

NMI identifies these trends as a result of various NMI research sources including the Health & Wellness Trends Database™ (HWTD), the LOHAS Consumer Trends Database™ (LCTD), the Evolution of Personal Care Database™ (EPC), Healthy Aging/Boomer Database, HealthBeat Interactive™, ESP™ (e-Screener Panel) and Immerzions™ as well as analysis of current activities in the marketplace. NMI databases, now including 400,000+ U.S. consumers, provide comprehensive information across more than 150 product categories.

(Source: NMI is a strategic consulting, market research and business development company specializing in the health, wellness and sustainable marketplace. For more information on NMI's trends reports, proprietary databases and other services, visit NMI's website at www.NMIsolutions.com.)

Impact of 5 Youth Transitions

As we recognize the growing impact of globalization and how people around the world impact the lives of one another, the World Bank released World Development Report 2007: Development and the Next Generation. The report points out that there are currently 1.5 billion human beings between the ages of 12 and 24 that these young people will significantly shape the future of their countries and the world. The report identified 5 youth transitions with the most significant and long-ranging impact for our future.

These five transitions include the following:

• Learning After Primary School: More than 85% of all children are in school at age 12 but that percentage declines after that time
• Starting a Productive Work Life: This difficult transition leads to drawn out periods of inactivity for youth
• Developing a Healthy Lifestyle: The search for identify and a place in one’s world often places long term health at risk
• Forming a Family: The ability of young families to form stable, ongoing relationships and invest in the well-being of their own children
• Exercising Citizenship: Opportunities to interact more extensively with the larger community leading to civic engagement.

The report goes on to suggest the following strategic directions related to these transitions:

• broadening opportunities for development of human capital;
• developing capacity of youth to choose well among various opportunities
• providing an effective system for second chances giving young people a way and incentive to get back on track.

Editor’s Note: Interesting that these three strategies so closely resemble the desired outcomes associated with the youth development options in parks and recreation

Diet? No More

The numbers about how Americans are becoming more and more obese are everywhere as are the warnings that such obesity is detrimental to one’s health in a variety of significant ways. Such assertions would lead people to imagine that Americans are more diet-conscious than ever before. That’s not necessarily the case.

A new report by the NPD Group shows dieting in the U.S. to be at an all-time low. Information derived from NPD’s 21st annual report on “Eating Patterns in America” reveal the following:

• Despite the fact that 60% of adults still indicate they would like to lose 20 pounds, the survey results reveal that the percent of adults on a diet last year was at the lowest level in at least 16 years.
• In 1990, the typical week throughout the year found 35% of women and 26% of men on a diet. This past year those levels dropped to 26% of women and 19% of men pursuing some kind of diet
• The most common age for peak dieting percentages is between 55 and 64 years; baby boomers are now entering that age stage, but dieting is not gaining the numbers
• However, baby boomers apparently true to their usual patterns, are not listening to the advice of others.*
  *See “control” as over-riding trend cited by NMI

Leisure Passions and Work Productivity

March Madness is almost a memory but one of the recurring topics related to big sporting and media events is the impact upon work productivity.

• Challenger Gray estimates that close to $1.2 billion in loss productivity occurs during the NCAA Basketball tournament based upon the 309.3 million minutes watched by the 22.9 million employed basketball fans with web access.
• The same firm estimated that events and activities leading up to the Super Bowl resulted in $800 million in lost productivity
• ERE Media estimated that the last Star Wars premiere resulted in a $627 million productivity loss.
  (Source: USA Today, March 2007)
  

By the Numbers: Patterns and Preferences

• No need for the post office? Email has not decreased the volume of “snail mail” as the US Postal Service reports that the number of pieces of mail has increased by 10 billion between 2002 and 2006.
• Latest available data from the American Gaming Association (2005) places gambling revenues across the United States reaching $20.5 billion
• Researchers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services indicate that healthcare spending now represents 16% of the GDP with predictions that this amount will double over the next decade reaching $4.1 trillion in 2016; nearly 20 cents of every dollar spent in the United States.
• Drug use down. Alcohol use up. A nation-wide study conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that use of illicit drug dropped slightly over the time period study while use of alcohol showed signs of growth. While California is “above the national average” on illicit drug use, it is NOT among the top 11 states for highest levels of such behavior.

Aging Americans and How They Choose to Live

Using data from a variety of sources the National Association of Home Builders distributed the following information:

• Aging in place is a reality as recent information from the National Association of Home Builders report that only 5% of people age 55 and over move annually and 50% if them stay in the same county and 75% in the same state. The traditional perception of people in New York moving to Florida and Californians migrating to Arizona is not adding up.
• The 2005 American Housing Survey conducted by the Census Bureau found that recreational amenities ranked very high among preferences of these buyers in the following categories:

Age Restricted Other 55+

Play and recreation is overwhelmingly important; the only group with stronger preferences for a dining room and a fireplace are those older adults who are buying new homes.

**Opportunity Alert**

The following areas are or continue to be opportunity areas for parks and recreation:

• Rebirth of Play as a Critical Element of Childhood
• Support for Youth Transitions
• Fun Alternatives to Preventing Obesity
• Recreation Ranks #1 with Older Adults

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trendSCAN is created for CPRS by Leisure Lifestyle Consulting of Sarasota, FL. Comments and questions can be directed to Dr. Ellen O’Sullivan at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Please feel free to share interesting trend information with her as well.