What problems do girls and boys have in the playground?

The playground can be a place for student development. However, during recess, girls and boys encounter different problems for leisure and gender stereotypes reduce playful opportunities for girls and some boys. The aim of this work was to know in depth the problems of the students before and after the development of a coeducational intervention in their playground from a gender perspective. Two focus groups (with five and six schoolchildren, respectively) and a survey of 113 schoolchildren were applied before the intervention. After her, ten interviews were carried out with the teachers of the center and 110 surveys were collected from the students. The data analysis was qualitative applying inductive coding cycles (open, axial and selective) with Atlas.ti. Organizational, social, aesthetic and material and spaces problems were found common to both genders before and after the change. However, some differences were obtained in the problems perceived by both genders. The boys expressed more organizational and social concerns related to the sports courts, while the girls demanded more spaces for intimacy and rest, as well as they declared problems with their leisure opportunities and the way in which male dominance was exercised on these courts.