Exploring Children’s Views on Important Park Features: A Qualitative Study Using Walk-Along Interviews

Abstract

Parks are places where children can interact with others and engage in physical activity in a natural setting. Park visits can enhance children’s social, mental, and physical health. It is therefore important to better understand how parks can be designed to ensure optimal use by children. This qualitative study explored children’s perceptions of park features that may influence their park visits, park-based physical activity, and social interaction. Qualitative walk-along interviews were completed with 30 children (mean age 9.7 years (SD 1.3), female n = 16) in nine parks located in varying socioeconomic areas of Melbourne, Australia. As they walked through the park, children shared thoughts regarding characteristics that may influence their visitation, park-based physical activity, and social interactions. Features that would encourage visitation included: challenging and interesting play equipment; a pond and water play area; trees/greenery and shade; and full-sized basketball courts. Features most valued for physical activity included: sports courts, ovals, and equipment; open space; trees to climb; and nature/rocks. Features most valued for social interaction included: a large size; playgrounds; and picnic areas. Children offer unique and important views. Park designers should consider inclusion of these features, when (re)developing parks to support children to lead healthy and active lives.

Determining Factors in the Use of Urban Parks That Influence the Practice of Physical Activity in Children: A Systematic Review

“…Taking into account the opinions of local populations will allow for a better understanding and planning of park design, or if necessary, redesign. This will ensure optimal use at different ages and by all genders and will increase visits to the park, PA, development of motor skills, physical fitness and social interaction [ 57 , 62 , 81 ]. However, user opinions are often not taken into account, causing the parks to be underused [ 83 ] and attracting only a subset of neighborhood children [ 50 ].…”

“…However, less than half of the investigations considered included surveys or interviews to capture the opinions of users, whether they were adults (families or caregivers of children during leisure time) or the children themselves. In fact, only two studies specifically focused on the perceptions of children aged 7 to 12 years [ 57 , 68 ]. Qualitative research is important and provides a lot of data on park preferences from the users’ point of view.…”

“…Qualitative research is important and provides a lot of data on park preferences from the users’ point of view. This would allow a more effective adaptation of the parks for the improvement of PA [ 49 , 51 , 57 , 66 , 71 ]. Thus, we consider it to be an essential aspect for future research.…”

“…This may be one of the reasons why the number of visitors to such places is decreasing. Therefore, planners should take into account the factors that attract different groups of children to parks [ 50 ], as well as better understanding of how parks can be designed or redesigned in order to ensure optimal use by children and encourage increased PA from an early age [ 56 , 57 ].…”

Examining Health-Related Effects of Refurbishment to Parks in a Lower Socioeconomic Area: The ShadePlus Natural Experiment

“…For policy reasons it may be useful in future analyses to also examine intervention effects stratified by specific observation conditions (e.g., sunny/cloudy, week day/weekend, time of day); and by the characteristics of the park visitors (e.g., age-group and sex). For example, a high proportion of children and young adults were using the parks at T1 and it would be interesting to identify whether the refurbishments attracted different age groups to use the parks to supplement other recent studies [ 45 , 46 ]. Moreover, if people perceived the refurbished parks to be more attractive for picnics and social gatherings than prior to refurbishment, we might expect to see high numbers of visitors at a given park on specific dates.…”