the social dimensions of access to green space: the importance of childhood experience catharine...
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The social dimensions of access to green space: the importance of
childhood experience
Catharine Ward Thompson Peter Aspinall, Simon Bell, Catherine Findlay
Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot-Watt Universitywww.openspace.eca.ac.uk
The research centre for inclusive access to outdoor environments
Policy Context• Green open space recognised as contributing to
quality of urban environment and to human health and wellbeing (Kaplans, 1989, Berger 1996)
• Access to outdoor spaces important in everyday life - exercise, relaxation, social relationships, relief from stress, escape from home and work (Kweon et al, 1998, Macnaghten and Urry, 2000)
• UK govt recognises health problems associated with obesity and physical inactivity (Countryside Agency 2001, Physical Activity Task Force, 2002)
2 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
Context• Decrease in independent use of public space by
children (Hillman, Adams and Whitelegg, 1990)• Pattern of access to public space influenced by
locality, gender and ethnicity (Greenfield et al, 2000).
• Adventure and mystery in woods attract but also bring fear (Hart, 1979; Herzog and Miller, 1998)
• Teenage males (groups and individuals) make other anxious (Valentine 1996; Geason and Wilson, 2000; Tucker and Matthews 2001)
• Key groups affected by anxiety: children, women, ethnic minorities, teenagers (Burgess 1998)
3 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
The Research AimsTwo research projects:1. Social inclusion and local
woodland use in Central Scotland, for the Forestry Commission– How important is forest use to
local people? Which forests do they use (or abuse) and why?
2. Green space use and social value in the East Midlands, for English Nature– How does access to nature
contribute to social wellbeing?
4 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
Theoretical Framework Personal construct psychology (Kelly,
1955) as basis for exploring perceptionsPeople's engagement with place explored
in relation to:• physical qualities of place• activities and behaviours• perceptions and beliefs(after Canter 1977)
Facet Theory (Donald 1995) used to define research domains
5 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
The Research MethodsBased on a user-led response
Scoping: • Literature survey• Initial discussions with forestry/green space
professionals to identify case study locations
Data Collection: • Focus groups• Questionnaires (questionnaire ‘mapping
sentence’ based on focus group findings) - 7 point Likert scale
• Site-based observations
6 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
Data analysis Simple discourse analysis for focus groupsQuestionnaire results: • Kruskal-Wallis and Dunnett’s T3 tests for significance
in data patterns• Factor analysis• Logistic regressions - demographics as independent
variables, attitudinal data as dependent variables • Logistic regressions - demographics and attitudinal
data as independent variables, visitor/non-visitor as dependent variable
• AnswerTree (SPSS) - what best predicts frequency of visits?
On-site observations: • Physical/visual analysis by experts compared with
questionnaire respondents’ responses
7 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
What did you do when you were small?
“Collected conkers, look for fishing in the river; there’s hardly any fish there now” (teenager, Wishaw)
“I was always in Greenfield when I was a wee lassie, climbing the trees” (teenager, Alloa)
“We used to cook just at this little dip, and we used to play in it (Water of Leith) ... and we used to swim … it was very wild.” (adult, Corstorphine)
8 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
Elemental Experiences
“ “In the evening people often go for a walk ... But often they can’t because the parks are locked. They want to see the moonlight … the most wonderful things in nature are at dawn and dusk … magical things happen then” woman, Leicester
9 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
Elemental Experiences for Children
“Another family and we got together and we decided we would take them (the children) in the dark walking, and it was December…to make it feel how it was like when you were in the dark, there were no lights along the (disused) railway.” woman, Lennoxtown
10 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
Experiences for Children
“There is plenty for the kids to do…throwing stones in the river, climbing trees and making pirates boats out of trees that have slightly fallen down. (On) some of the dead trees, you can actually hit the stick and make what we call a music tree…get music out of it”
woman, Lennoxtown
11 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
Parents’ worries about safety
“It’s much more to do with the information they get now. I don’t think we are any worse really…It’s like children being abducted: thirty, forty years ago, you would never have heard of all that, but now…people don’t let their children go down the road by themselves…a lot of it is imagined, not imagined but we are aware of these things therefore parents are more cautious”
person over 60, Corstorphine
12 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
Teenagers’ good experiences“My brothers like to make dens with friends, up the
woods”
“I like the bit up the wood, by the quarry. You can sit up at the top …and see the whole of Edinburgh”
13 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
Teenagers’ bad experiences“Where I live…we have a forest
right next to us. Ten years ago it was quite a nice place to go for a walk but now …it’s quite nasty to walk through, cars burnt out, etc…”
“At the woods at Sauchie, folk take drugs down there…16- to 17-year-olds hiding in there. You can see that they’re dealing and that, so you don’t go in there, it wouldn’t be safe”.
14 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
Frequency (%) of Woodland visits in Central Scotland
(n = 339)Frequency of visits
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Daily Weekly Monthly Annually Not at all
15 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
Frequency of Childhood Visits in relation to Adult Visits - Scotland
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Regular Monthly Infrequently/not at all
Adult visits to woodlands
Regular
Monthly
Infrequently/not at all
Childhood visits:
16 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
Central Scotland: Summary of demographic factors which predict attitudinal responses
17 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
* P 0.05 ** P 0.01 *** P 0.001
Predictors and χ2 l evel o f significance
Attitudin al statement Childhoodvisit
frequency
Age Sex
Physical Features I visi /t wou ld visi t woodlan ds wher e signslead me t o thewoodlands
*** ***
I visi /t wou ld visi t woodlan ds thathaveparking
*
I visi /t wou ld visi t woodlan ds thathavediffer enttype s of trees
**
I visi /t wou ld visi t woodlan ds thathav e welldefin ed paths
*
I visi /t wou ld visi t woodlan ds thathav e areas of o penspace
*
Activites I visi /t wou ld visi t woodlan ds forspecialistoutdoor activities
*
I visi /t wou ld visi t woodlan ds to hav e afamily walk
** ***
I visi /t wou ld visi t woodlan ds to hav e picnics *** I visi /t wou ld visi t woodlan ds to g o walking on myown
*** ***
Perceptions I thi nk of woodland s a s scary *** I thi nk of woodland s a s hidi ng people *** I fe ar havin g anacci dentin woodlands ** I fee l at ho mei n a woodland *** I fee l vulnerabl e i n a woodland ** I thi nkther e is ` social sti gmaattache d tobein g alone i n a woodland
***
Scotland: attitudes to visiting woodlands alone, according to frequency of woodland
visits in childhood
18 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
"I visit woodlands to go walking on my own"
-2
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
daily weekly monthly annually not at all
Frequency of woodland visits as a child
level of agreement
Scotland: demographic predictors of daily visitor vs. non-visitors of woodlands
19 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
B S.E. Wald df Sig. Exp.(B)1.128 .365 9.536 1 .002 3.088.134 .602 .050 1 .823 1.144.950 .814 1.364 1 .243 2.586.170 .194 .768 1 .381 1.185-.115 .505 .052 1 .820 .892-.235 .243 .932 1 .334 .791.324 .664 .239 1 .625 1.383.074 .176 .179 1 .673 1.077
Visit as childLiving in area thenSpecial connectionAgeGenderLocationDog ownerOccupationConstant -4.641 2.565 3.275 1 .070 .010
PredictedDaily not at all
daily 23 10Observed
not at all 11 27
The model prediction was significant (χ2 = 23.4, df = 8, p = .003) with a classification rate of 71%.
Childhood experience and adult perceptions in the East Midlands
Perceptions according to frequency of childhood visits: "I visit green spaces within walking distance of my home"
"When in green spaces I feel more energetic" "I think green spaces can be magical places"
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
walk dist energetic magical
Level of agreement
DailyWeeklymonthlyYearlyNever
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AnswerTree: demographic variables as predictors of frequency of woodland visits
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Dependent variable:How often do you visit woodlands?
Frequently Infrequentlyor never
No FemaleMale
Yes No
Assumed dog ownership
How frequently did you visit as a child?
Gender
Yes
Under 55 55 or older
Age
Under 25 25 or older Under 35 35 or older
Age Age
Were you living in thisarea then?
Do you have anyspecial connectionto woodlands?
Yes No
AnswerTree: demographic variables as predictors of frequency of woodland visits
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ActualDaily/weekly
Monthly/annually
Not at all Total
Predicted Daily/weekly 84 52 22 158Monthly/annually 38 96 25 159Not at all 2 4 8 14Total 124 152 55 331%accuracy 68% 63% 15%
Risk estimate 0.432024Standard error of risk estimate 0.0272273Overall % accuracy 57%
The overall accuracy of the decisional Answer Tree indicates 57% correct predictionbut this prediction for frequent and infrequent visitors is at 68% and 63%respectively.
Misclassification Matrix for AnswerTree (SPSS): Demographic variables as predictors of frequency of woodland visits
What are the motivations behind the use of local outdoor
areas by different people?
The central importance of childhood experience is the key finding Those who visited woodlands and green space often as children are more likely to go walking alone there as adults.
Those who visited green spaces frequently as children are more likely to associate them with feeling energetic, and with a sense of being ‘magical’
23 Green space and childhood experience: IAPS 2004
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