New Study: Examining the Social and Built Environment Factors Influencing Children’s Independent Use of Their Neighborhoods and the Experience of Local Settings as Child-Friendly
- Post by: Olivia Teresa Caruso
- 2:50PM Jan 12, 2023
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A team of researchers led by Janet Loebach with Jason Gilliland recently published an article entitled: “Examining the Social and Built Environment Factors Influencing Children’s Independent Use of Their Neighborhoods and the Experience of Local Settings as Child-Friendly.”
Neighborhoods have traditionally served as important settings for children’s independent activities, but use has declined dramatically.
Global positioning system (GPS) monitors, activity diaries, annotated maps, and Google Earth–enabled interviews captured the neighborhood perceptions, usage, and independent activity ranges of twenty-three children (nine to twelve years) from London, Canada.
While few participants used neighborhood settings on a habitual basis, local parks and homes of nearby friends were important independent destinations. Usage was strongly influenced by positive and negative social conditions, but local environments did not generally cater well to the shifting interests of resident children.
Embedding child-friendly affordances through neighborhood planning may improve children’s experience and independent use of local settings.
Citation: Janet Loebach and Jason Gilliland. “Examining the Social and Built Environment Factors Influencing Children’s Independent Use of Their Neighborhoods and the Experience of Local Settings as Child-Friendly.” Journal of planning education and research (2022); https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X19828444