Constructing an evaluation framework for child-friendly city: a case study of outdoor recreation spaces in Shenyang City, China

This study aims to provide a reference for enhancing child-friendliness in outdoor recreation spaces (ORSs) and the design of child-friendly public spaces. In recent years, many evaluation systems have been proposed for ORSs, but the comprehensive evaluation of their child-friendliness needs further improvement. This study proposes an assessment tool for comprehensively evaluating the child-friendliness of ORSs based on a child-friendly theoretical framework, which includes three primary indicators, six secondary indicators, and 40 tertiary indicators. Moreover, this study used the factor analysis method with 1,408 questionnaires to analyze and validate the assessment tool. Each factor’s contribution rate was calculated using the correlation weight method of SEM. It concluded that the service friendliness of the first-level indicators accounted for the highest percentage, and the service accessibility and site security accounted for the higher percentage of the second-level indicators. Finally, an empirical study of three ORSs in Shenyang found a positive correlation between the level of child-friendliness of ORSs and the time of their construction. Children’s ORSs are gradually improving in the three dimensions of site security, spatial embodiment, and use comfortability. However, they still need to upgrade the three dimensions of natural accessibility, facility playability, and service accessibility.