Child Development and the Built Environment: An Investigation of Neighbourhood Physical Disorder & Child-Friendliness

Abstract

The past several years have witnessed significant interest in the role that residential neighbourhoods play in shaping child development. There is evidence that contextual attributes of neighbourhoods exert an influence on development, over and above compositional characteristics. These findings suggest that neighbourhood-based interventions may be successful at improving population-level child development outcomes, over policy aimed at individual-based change. However, the reliance on respondent perception of neighbourhood attributes in the existing research is vulnerable to bias. Thus this research employing a quantitative approach to the study of the neighbourhood built environment addresses a significant gap. Drawing from independent sets of data, linked geographically (Early Development Instrument, Google Street View-Systematic Social Observation of a random sample of street segments in each census tract, and the Canadian Marginalization Index), I use correlation and regression analysis to examine the link between neighbourhood physical disorder and child-friendliness, structural disadvantage, and child development at the census tract level in Victoria, B.C. Results indicate physical disorder is the neighbourhood attribute having the most salient impact across multiple domains of child development. Furthermore, the link between neighbourhood child-friendliness and most EDI domains was not in the direction or as significant as hypothesized. This may suggest the need for a more detailed measurement tool to assess quality of each feature as well as presence or absence. Findings also indicate that physical disorder and structural disadvantage may be on the same causal pathway towards shaping children’s health and wellbeing.Overall, this research improves our understanding of the complex interaction between children and their neighbourhoods, and its contribution to healthy development. By identifying the need for a more detailed measurement tool, this research provides evidence for the design of future studies. Furthermore, findings from this study provide evidence in support of population-level intervention to promote healthy child development through improvement of neighbourhood aesthetic.