IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i16p9860-d884793.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Relationship between Children’s Independent Activities and the Built Environment of Outdoor Activity Space in Residential Neighborhoods: A Case Study of Nanjing

Author

Listed:
  • Yang Zhou

    (School of Architecture, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211800, China)

  • Meng Wang

    (School of Architecture, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211800, China)

  • Siming Lin

    (School of Architecture, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211800, China)

  • Caiyun Qian

    (School of Architecture, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211800, China)

Abstract

Children are a vulnerable population that is frequently overlooked in urban planning. The spatial demands of children are garnering broader consideration in the development of public spaces in cities as efforts to promote child-friendly cities. Children’s independent activities (CIAs) during childhood are undeniably beneficial to their physical and mental health. Residential areas are the main places for children’s daily activities. Building a suitable outdoor activity space in the community for children’s recreation is an essential foundation for improving CIAs and promoting the development of child-friendly neighborhoods. A sample of 15 typical children’s outdoor activity spaces in residential neighborhoods of Nanjing, China, was selected for the study to observe and record CIAs. The built environment indicators of residential outdoor spaces were extracted, and correlation analysis was employed to investigate the residential outdoor space elements relevant to CIAs. The results indicated that at the site level, higher percentages of tree coverage and soft paving enhanced CIAs, while high functional mix inhibited them. Additionally, gated communities, top-notch sanitation, secure facilities, neighborhoods with higher residential densities, and a diversity of activity facilities all stimulated children to engage in independent activities. Furthermore, questionnaires for the guardian indicated that they placed a high priority on site safety, and that waterfront areas and activity sites where incidents had occurred decreased parents’ willingness to allow participation in CIAs, whereas safety education or the use of positioning devices may promote CIAs. Based on the above results, we proposed appropriate adaptations for places in residential neighborhoods. The study expects to create a higher quality environment in residential neighborhoods for children to play in public spaces and provide beneficial help to improve the child-friendly neighborhood.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang Zhou & Meng Wang & Siming Lin & Caiyun Qian, 2022. "Relationship between Children’s Independent Activities and the Built Environment of Outdoor Activity Space in Residential Neighborhoods: A Case Study of Nanjing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-24, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:16:p:9860-:d:884793
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/9860/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/9860/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Scheiner, Joachim & Huber, Oliver & Lohmüller, Stefan, 2019. "Children's independent travel to and from primary school: Evidence from a suburban town in Germany," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 116-131.
    2. Christine A. Mitchell & Andrew F. Clark & Jason A. Gilliland, 2016. "Built Environment Influences of Children’s Physical Activity: Examining Differences by Neighbourhood Size and Sex," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, January.
    3. Sharmin, Samia & Kamruzzaman, Md., 2017. "Association between the built environment and children's independent mobility: A meta-analytic review," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 104-117.
    4. Negin A. Riazi & Sébastien Blanchette & François Trudeau & Richard Larouche & Mark S. Tremblay & Guy Faulkner, 2019. "Correlates of Children’s Independent Mobility in Canada: A Multi-Site Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-14, August.
    5. Trina Robinson & Andrea Nathan & Kevin Murray & Hayley Christian, 2022. "Parents’ Perceptions of the Neighbourhood Built Environment Are Associated with the Social and Emotional Development of Young Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-14, May.
    6. Fyhri, Aslak & Hjorthol, Randi & Mackett, Roger L. & Fotel, Trine Nordgaard & Kyttä, Marketta, 2011. "Children's active travel and independent mobility in four countries: Development, social contributing trends and measures," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 703-710, September.
    7. Helen F. Dodd & Lily FitzGibbon & Brooke E. Watson & Rachel J. Nesbit, 2021. "Children’s Play and Independent Mobility in 2020: Results from the British Children’s Play Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-20, April.
    8. Amalie Lambert & Janae Vlaar & Susan Herrington & Mariana Brussoni, 2019. "What Is the Relationship between the Neighbourhood Built Environment and Time Spent in Outdoor Play? A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-35, October.
    9. Karolina Boxberger & Anne Kerstin Reimers, 2019. "Parental Correlates of Outdoor Play in Boys and Girls Aged 0 to 12—A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-19, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wenbo Li & Jiaqi Wu & Wenting Xu & Ye Zhong & Zhihao Wang, 2022. "How Thermal Perceptual Schema Mediates Landscape Quality Evaluation and Activity Willingness," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-27, October.
    2. Yue Tang & Li Zhu & Jiang Li & Ni Zhang & Yilin Sun & Xiaokang Wang & Honglin Wu, 2023. "Assessment of Perceived Factors of Road Safety in Rural Left-Behind Children’s Independent Travel: A Case Study in Changsha, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-23, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Janet Loebach & Marcos Sanches & Julia Jaffe & Tara Elton-Marshall, 2021. "Paving the Way for Outdoor Play: Examining Socio-Environmental Barriers to Community-Based Outdoor Play," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-25, March.
    2. Negin A. Riazi & Kelly Wunderlich & Lira Yun & Derek C. Paterson & Guy Faulkner, 2022. "Social-Ecological Correlates of Children’s Independent Mobility: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-15, January.
    3. Melody Smith & Rebecca Amann & Alana Cavadino & Deborah Raphael & Robin Kearns & Roger Mackett & Lisa Mackay & Penelope Carroll & Euan Forsyth & Suzanne Mavoa & Jinfeng Zhao & Erika Ikeda & Karen Witt, 2019. "Children’s Transport Built Environments: A Mixed Methods Study of Associations between Perceived and Objective Measures and Relationships with Parent Licence for Independent Mobility in Auckland, New ," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-22, April.
    4. Lingyi Qiu & Xuemei Zhu, 2021. "Housing and Community Environments vs. Independent Mobility: Roles in Promoting Children’s Independent Travel and Unsupervised Outdoor Play," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-17, February.
    5. Helen F. Dodd & Lily FitzGibbon & Brooke E. Watson & Rachel J. Nesbit, 2021. "Children’s Play and Independent Mobility in 2020: Results from the British Children’s Play Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-20, April.
    6. Isabel Marzi & Anne Kerstin Reimers, 2018. "Children’s Independent Mobility: Current Knowledge, Future Directions, and Public Health Implications," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-15, November.
    7. Sharmin, Samia & Kamruzzaman, Md. & Haque, Md Mazharul, 2020. "The impact of topological properties of built environment on children independent mobility: A comparative study between discretionary vs. nondiscretionary trips in Dhaka," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    8. Nicole Rheinheimer & Stefania V. Vacaru & Julie C. van Immerseel & Simone Kühn & Carolina de Weerth, 2024. "Infant Care: Predictors of Outdoor Walking, Infant Carrying and Infant Outdoor Sleeping," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(6), pages 1-24, May.
    9. Müller, Sven & Mejia-Dorantes, Lucia & Kersten, Elisa, 2020. "Analysis of active school transportation in hilly urban environments: A case study of Dresden," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    10. Chelsea A. Pelletier & Katie Cornish & Caroline Sanders, 2021. "Children’s Independent Mobility and Physical Activity during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study with Families," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-12, April.
    11. Richard Larouche & Madeline Kleinfeld & Ulises Charles Rodriguez & Cheryl Hatten & Victoria Hecker & David R. Scott & Leanna Marie Brown & Ogochukwu K. Onyeso & Farzana Sadia & Hanako Shimamura, 2023. "Determinants of Outdoor Time in Children and Youth: A Systematic Review of Longitudinal and Intervention Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-33, January.
    12. Elise Desjardins & Zahra Tavakoli & Antonio Páez & Edward Owen Douglas Waygood, 2022. "Children’s Access to Non-School Destinations by Active or Independent Travel: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-18, September.
    13. Dorji Wangzom & Marcus White & Jeni Paay, 2023. "Perceived Safety Influencing Active Travel to School—A Built Environment Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-12, January.
    14. Ester Ayllón & Nieves Moyano & Azucena Lozano & María-Jesús Cava, 2019. "Parents’ Willingness and Perception of Children’s Autonomy as Predictors of Greater Independent Mobility to School," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-14, February.
    15. Laurie-Anne Kosak & Kianoush Harandian & Simon L. Bacon & Isabelle Archambault & Luca Correale & Linda S. Pagani, 2024. "Early Socio-Emotional Difficulty as a Childhood Barrier to the Expected Benefits of Active Play: Associated Risks for School Engagement in Adolescence," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(10), pages 1-15, October.
    16. Elias, Wafa & Katoshevski-Cavari, Rachel, 2014. "The role of socio-economic and environmental characteristics in school-commuting behavior: A comparative study of Jewish and Arab children in Israel," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 79-87.
    17. Julian A. Reed & Rachel M. Ballard & Michael Hill & David Berrigan, 2020. "Identification of Effective Programs to Improve Access to and Use of Trails among Youth from Under-Resourced Communities: A Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-33, October.
    18. Raktim Mitra & Guy EJ Faulkner & Ron N Buliung & Michelle R Stone, 2014. "Do parental perceptions of the neighbourhood environment influence children’s independent mobility? Evidence from Toronto, Canada," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(16), pages 3401-3419, December.
    19. Ermagun, Alireza & Levinson, David, 2016. "Intra-household bargaining for school trip accompaniment of children: A group decision approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 222-234.
    20. Aysel Esen Çoban & Nilay Kaptan, 2022. "Psychological and Behavioral Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Adolescents in Turkey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-18, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:16:p:9860-:d:884793. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.