Jin-Hee Park, Jun-Hyung Kim and So-Hyun Park (2018-02), "Time and spatial characteristics of children's outdoor play in residential areas - Based on the elementary school lower grader parents' perception in Seoul," Urban Design, 19(1): 65-82.
Abstract
This paper aims to investigate the general states of children's outdoor play time and play space in Seoul. As for research methods, a city-wide survey was conducted for 500 parents of the lower graders of elementary school, during April and May 2016. The findings are as follows: First, children in Seoul play an average 30.4 minutes per day for a week. They play an average 26.6 minutes per day on weekdays, which increases to an average 39.9 minutes on weekends. Second, play spaces on weekdays exist in average 20 minutes distance from home, but play spaces on weekends exist more than 30 minutes distance away from home. Third, the relationship between play spaces' proximity from home and children's usages of them varies depending on whether it is weekdays or weekend, as well as on a kind of play spaces. The complicated patterns of children's outdoor play present meaningful implications to neighborhood planning and to children's play facility planning. With respect to children's outdoor play, the planning approaches need to consider not just one dimension of the distance but multiple dimensions of distance, use patterns, and time.
Keywords
children; outdoor play; playtime; playspace; residential neighborhood