Playground biodiversity and preschool children well-being

This repository contains data related to an interdisciplinary study on playgrounds, looking at both playground vegetation and the well-being of pre-school children using those playgrounds. This project was funded by and initiated at the Institute for Landscape Planning and Ecology (ILPÖ) of the University of Stuttgart, Germany. Data was collected by ILPÖ. The project was finalised in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL). The aim of the study was to (1) describe playground vegetation (species richness and diversity at the ground, shrub and tree layers; habitat structure); (2) describe preschool children’s well-being and nature-connectedness; and (3) investigate whether there is a relationship between plant diversity and well-being while exploring potential other predictors of well-being, including children’s and parents’ or carer’s nature-connectedness, greenspace exposure, seasonality, and socio-demographic background.
We sampled ground (-1m height), shrub (1-2m height) and tree (-2m hieght) vegetation of 29 playgrounds of Stuttgart's inner city. Sampling took place between May 25 and July 01, 2021. Ground layer vegetation was sampled in ten one-by-one m2 quadrats per playground, within which we recorded the cover of each species based on the Braun-Blanquet scale. Woody vegetation was exhaustively sampled within the playgrounds and in a surrounding two meters buffer, recording each individual plant. Vegetation cover was visually estimated as a percentage for each vegetation layer, namely the ground, shrub and tree (canopy) layers.
In parallel, we distributed questionnaires to parents and carers to assess the well-being and connectedness-to-nature of preschool children (aged 6 or younger) across the seasons. The questionnaire covered children's (1) use of greenspaces, (2) nature-connectedness, (3) well-being, and (4) socio-demographic variables. Questionnaires were distributed accross all seasons: sampling seasons included autumn (Oct-Nov 2021), winter (Jan-Feb 2022), spring (April-May 2022) and summer (June-July 2022). Ethical approval was granted by the University of Stuttgart Commission on Responsibility in Research (Az. 21-033).