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“Just to make new friends and play with other children” : Understanding youth engagement within neighbourhood parks using a Photo-Choice tool
Ziaesaeidi, Parisa Cushing, Debra Flanders Washington, Tracy Buys, Laurie
Ziaesaeidi, Parisa
Cushing, Debra Flanders
Washington, Tracy
Buys, Laurie
Abstract
People of varying ages have different reasons for visiting parks during their leisure time, and while previous studies often focused on youth activities during their play within parks, less attention has been given to which park settings are preferred by the youth themselves for socialising, and with whom they want to socialise. This study explored youth social engagement within neighbourhood parks as behaviour settings, considering the environments as theorised entities that embody predetermined uses by suggesting and or enabling specific activities. Data was collected using an online visual data collection method called a photo-choice tool with a total of 192 youth, aged 9–17 from the Moreton Bay Region of Queensland, Australia, who completed the tool while visiting a neighbourhood park. Using theoretical saturation during the analysis, the data was grouped into three main themes; environmental attributes (park settings), social attributes (people with whom youth preferred to go), and behavioural attributes (motives for the preferred activities). Findings show that the presence of others, including friends, siblings and parents, motivate youth in both age categories (9–12 years and 13–17 years) to visit parks, and this presence of people also affects their preferences for park activities. The results of this research demonstrate that accompanying friends is one of the most important reasons youth visit a park, and that social activities and social interactions among youth are not only affected by the affordances of the park settings, but also by the social affordances that youth present to each other.
Keywords
neighbourhood parks, youth social engagement, youth social preferences, social affordances, photo-choice tool
Date
2023
Type
Journal article
Journal
Landscape and Urban Planning
Book
Volume
235
Issue
Page Range
1-17
Article Number
Article 104757
ACU Department
Faculty of Health Sciences
Collections
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
All rights reserved
File Access
Controlled