Research on the Design Methodology of Children’s Play Spaces in Urban Communities Based on EFA–SEM

Urban community children’s play spaces play a crucial role in promoting both physical and mental health, significantly influencing children’s development and fostering a sense of belonging to the community. However, existing design practices often fail to adequately address the complex behavioral and emotional needs of children in these spaces. To overcome this gap, there is an urgent need for a system that can effectively respond to these complexities, thereby enhancing children’s play experiences and their attachment to the space. This study seeks to optimize the design of children’s play spaces in urban communities through a quantitative approach based on Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). First, multi-dimensional data concerning children’s physical environment, subjective perceptions, play behaviors, and satisfaction were gathered through field surveys and questionnaires. Reliability and validity assessments were conducted to ensure data quality. Subsequently, EFA was applied to perform dimensionality reduction and identify the underlying structure, resulting in the extraction of six key factors that influence children’s play experiences. Finally, SEM was utilized to construct a structural model, test hypotheses, and quantify the relationships between the identified dimensions. The results demonstrate that the EFA-SEM framework effectively transforms subjective concepts into actionable design parameters, meeting user needs and providing a solid scientific foundation for the design of children’s play spaces in urban communities.