Abstract
Background and purpose: In today's urban world, children are increasingly exposed to stressful factors that can negatively affect their mental health and well-being, thus creating child-friendly cities that prioritize children's needs is a vital aspect in planning and Urban design has become one of the approaches that has attracted considerable attention to include urban green spaces such as parks and playgrounds to help children's mental health. The purpose of this article is to investigate the impact of urban green spaces on the mental health and well-being of children in the framework of the child-friendly city approach.
Methodology: This research has been done with a developmental-applicative purpose, and two documentary and field methods have been used to collect data. First, by using library and documentary studies, information about the impact of urban green spaces on children's mental health was collected. Then appropriate questionnaires were designed and distributed and 379 people were selected as a sample using Cochran's sampling method. Finally, data analysis was done using SPSS software and descriptive and inferential statistical methods such as single-sample t-test and step-by-step regression. In the next step, using the TOPSIS method, the impact of urban green spaces on the mental health of children in the four and five districts of Karaj has been investigated.
Findings and discussion: The research findings from data analysis show that the most important factors affecting children's mental health are accessibility, sense of place, participation, diversity and variety, social interactions, vitality, usability, security, and pause and creative spaces. Also, the t-test result showed that the average of the indicators in region five is better than region four. The indicators of permeability, readability, memorability, social trust, materials, vegetation, pause spaces, recreational and educational uses, social and physical security, and dynamism and flexibility are in a favorable state in region five, but the importance of these indicators in region four is much lower. In stepwise regression analysis, the model that has a higher adjusted coefficient of determination than the other models presented is selected as the final model for research analyses. In the regression analysis for region four, the selected model with an adjusted coefficient of determination of 0/167, has the highest adjusted coefficient of determination among the other models presented in the analysis and is selected as the final model of the analysis. In region five, the selected model has an adjusted coefficient of determination of 0/544, which is the highest value among the other models and is selected as the final model.
Conclusion: The results of the analysis of the research data show that the average indicators in region five will have a greater impact on the mental health of children in that region than in region four, and the findings of TOPSIS model showed that out of all the studied regions, region five has a coefficient of 0/99, in The first rank and the fourth region with a weight of 0/01, is ranked second from the point of view of children 6 to 14.
Main Subjects
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