Conceptualizing participation in context for children and youth with disabilities: an activity setting perspective

This article considers the conceptualization, operationalization and implications of activity settings for research on the recreation and leisure participation of children and youth with disabilities. Activity settings are contextualized settings that situate child and youth activities and their participation experiences. We discuss activity settings as an important construct for considering environmental qualities that provide opportunities for beneficial participation experiences for children and youth with disabilities. The article considers existing research using the concept of activity settings, the conceptualization of environment and contemporary issues in the measurement of participation and environment, indicating how these are addressed by an activity settings approach. We then describe the development of two quantitative measures of recreation and leisure activity settings - one assessing environmental qualities and the other assessing youth experiences - that have the potential to inform researchers, managers and clinicians about relationships between environmental qualities and participation experiences. Finally, we consider the implications of an activity settings approach for research, theory building and clinical practice.