Environmental Characteristics of Children’s Neighborhood Activities

Abstract

Environmental characteristics affecting children’s physical abilities and health are worth understanding. The purpose of this study is to identify neighborhood environmental characteristics that influence children’s activities and assess the friendliness of Taiwanese communities toward children’s activities. Conditions are observed on the basis of five environmental characteristics: safety, amenity, accessibility, sociability, and attractiveness. The three communities studied have different combinations of street patterns and land use which, in turn, are conducive to different children’s activities. These findings are valuable for community design aimed at promoting children’s activities. Keywords: Neighborhood Characteristics,  Children’s Activities, Community Design, Street Pattern © 2017. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.