Geographies of outdoor play in Dhaka: an explorative study on children’s location preference, usage pattern, and accessibility range of play spaces

This paper explores children’s (aged 7–16) outdoor play in terms of location preference, usage pattern, and accessibility range of play spaces in three neighbourhoods in Dhaka. Data were collected through a survey of children and their respective parents, interviews with children, and observation of play activities in 21 play spaces. Analytical results reveal diverse geographies of children’s outdoor play across gender, age, family income, urban areas, and length of stay. The preferences for outdoor play and intensity of use of the play spaces were significantly lower among girls compared to boys. The frequency of access to play spaces decreased exponentially with the distance between children’s home and play space (exponent of distance-decay = 0.346 per 100 m). Results add evidence to the everyday geographies of children’s outdoor play and inform urban planners in their efforts to create better play environments for and with children in high-density South Asian cities.

本研究针对孟加拉国达卡市三个街区内7至16岁儿童的户外游玩行为展开系统探讨，从场地选址偏好、使用模式以及游乐空间可达范围三个维度开展分析。研究通过面向儿童及其家长的问卷调查、儿童访谈以及对21处游乐空间内游玩活动的实地观测完成数据采集。分析结果表明，受性别、年龄、家庭收入、居住区域及居留时长等因素影响，不同群体儿童的户外游玩空间分布呈现显著异质性；相较于男童，女童的户外游玩意愿以及游乐空间使用强度均显著更低；儿童前往游乐空间的频次随家庭与场地间的距离呈指数级衰减，距离衰减系数为每100米0.346。本研究结果为儿童户外游玩的日常空间地理研究补充了实证依据，同时可为高密度南亚城市的城市规划者提供决策参考，助力其更好地为儿童打造适配性游乐环境，并联合儿童共同参与游乐空间的营造工作。