Peer-reviewed article
Research on the safety evaluation of children's activity space in urban residential areas.
Zhou Y, Wang M, Qian C, Shen X ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study develops a framework for evaluating how safe children's outdoor activity spaces feel in urban residential areas. Researchers surveyed parents and children to understand what makes them perceive these spaces as safe or unsafe. The analysis identified five key dimensions of safety perception: site design, facility quality, management practices, neighborhood environment, and environmental conditions. Physical layout and facility safety were found to matter most, along with good community management and supportive neighbors.
Key points
- Site safety and facility safety are the most important factors influencing perceived safety of children's outdoor spaces
- Physical characteristics including spatial layout, site boundaries, activity organization, and facility provision are core factors
- Strict, well-organized community management significantly enhances trust in environmental safety
- A harmonious neighborhood environment increases residents' willingness to support children's outdoor activities
- The study developed a multidimensional evaluation framework with five dimensions to assess safety perception
Limitations
The document does not specify which countries or cities were studied, making it unclear if findings apply globally or to specific contexts. The study measures perceived safety rather than actual safety outcomes or the impact of interventions on children's health and activity levels.
Abstract
Introduction Residential communities constitute important settings for children's daily outdoor activities, and the perceived safety of outdoor activity spaces among parents and children plays a critical role in shaping children's outdoor activity behaviors. However, rapid urbanization, increasing traffic volumes, and large-scale urban construction have reduced opportunities for safe outdoor activities, contributing to a decline in children's independent mobility and potentially affecting their healthy development. This study aims to identify the key factors influencing users' safety perceptions of children's outdoor activity spaces in residential communities. Methods Based on a comprehensive literature review and user satisfaction evaluations of the safety conditions of children's outdoor activity spaces, this study developed a safety perception evaluation framework comprising five dimensions: site safety, management safety, neighborhood safety, facility safety, and environmental safety. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), first-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and second-order CFA were employed to examine the underlying factor structure and relationships among safety perception dimensions. Results The results indicated that site safety and facility safety carried the greatest weights among the five dimensions. Physical characteristics, including spatial layout, site boundaries, activity organization, and facility provision, were identified as the core factors influencing users' safety perceptions. In addition, strict and well-organized community management, together with a harmonious and supportive neighborhood environment, significantly enhanced residents' trust in environmental safety and increased their willingness to support children's outdoor activities. The second-order factor model further confirmed the multidimensional structure of safety perception in residential outdoor activity spaces for children. Discussion The findings provide a comprehensive framework for evaluating the safety of children's outdoor activity spaces, reflecting the psychological perceptions and subjective feelings of safety among both parents and children. The proposed evaluation system can assist planners, designers, and community managers in identifying critical safety deficiencies, informing targeted interventions, and supporting future research on the safety and health-promoting potential of residential outdoor environments for children.