A comparison of park access with park need for children: A case study in Cache County, Utah

Abstract

Childhood obesity is one of the nation's most serious health problems. There are growing efforts to prevent childhood obesity by improving opportunities for physical activity in their communities. The outdoor settings of the built environment, such as parks and open spaces, can offer children opportunities for physical activities, experience with nature, and social interaction, which contribute to children's physical and psychological health. However, children's physical access to parks is often inequitable. Simultaneously, the quality of parks also varies. These disparities caused the inequitable distribution of health-promoting features of built environment among disadvantaged groups who may not have access to other resources. While most previous studies focused on physical park distribution inequities, the purpose of this study is to explore park access by both park physical proximity and quality related to children's (5 to 17 years old) potential need for parks. v

Developing and testing a protocol to systematically assess social interaction with urban outdoor environment

“…The example independent variables (IV) included quality, size, and type of parks. We employed a direct observational instrument, the Parks, Activity, and Recreation among Kids (PARK) tool, which was evaluated the validity and reliability and constructed the psychometric properties ( Bird et al, 2015 ), to measure park quality of the 30 selected parks in Logan ( Chen et al, 2019 ). Park quality consisted of several park features which have been summarized as contributory to mental health by facilitating social activities in parks, such as landscaping, safety, amenities ( Wan et al, 2021 ).…”

Derecho al parque y la niñez urbana: falta de justicia espacial en la periferia

“…Cabe destacar que otra condición que se presenta en las ciudades, es que el acceso a las áreas verdes es más reducido para la población infantil que habita en zonas de bajo ingreso económico (Rigolon, y Flohr, 2014) y en los espacios existentes la presencia de instalaciones encaminadas al juego es más limitada. En relación con esto, la calidad del espacio y su mantenimiento es más deficiente con respecto a los parques que se localizan en zonas habitacionales de más altos ingresos, lo mismo sucede si presentan mobiliario u otro tipo de instalaciones y áreas ajardinadas (Chen et al, 2019).…”

“…En este sentido, la accesibilidad a las áreas verdes para los asentamientos menos favorecidos se ve afectada tanto por la desigualdad en la calidad del espacio como por una más reducida superficie (Rigolon, 2016), estos factores generan que dicha población visite con menos frecuencia los parques (Chen et al, 2019). Otro aspecto fundamental para el uso de estos espacios es la proximidad a la vivienda.…”

Comparative Review of Environmental Audit Tools for Public Open Spaces from the Perspective of Children’s Activity

“…These studies included both the introduction of the given tools’ development and the tools’ applications. The tools identified were: the Environmental Assessment of Public Recreation Spaces (EAPRS) [ 17 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ]; the Children’s Public Open Space Tool (C-POST) [ 30 , 31 ]; the Community Park Audit Tool (CPAT) [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ]; the Physical Activity Resource Assessment (PARA, adapted version) [ 39 ]; the Resilience for Eating and Physical Activity Despite Inequality (READI) park audit tool [ 40 ]; the Woolley and Lowe’s play space assessment tool [ 41 , 42 ]; the Parks, Activity and Recreation among Kids (PARK) tool [ 43 , 44 , 45 ]; the Playable Space Quality Assessment Tool (PSQAT) [ 46 ]; the QUality INdex of Parks for Youth (QUINPY) [ 47 ]; the Opportunities for Children in Urban Spaces (OCUS) [ 48 ]; and the Play Space Audit Tool (PSAT) [ 49 ]. Among these, the EAPRS tool does not primarily target children but does include detailed index items and has been used or adapted in multiple studies evaluating children’s playgrounds.…”