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The Routledge Handbook of Designing Public Spaces for Young People is a thorough and practical resource for all who wish to influence policy and design decisions in order to increase young people's access to and use of public spaces, as well as their role in design and decision-making processes. The ability of youth to freely enjoy public spaces, and to develop a sense of belonging and attachment to these environments, is critical for their physical, social, cognitive, and emotional development. Young people represent a vital citizen group with legitimate rights to occupy and shape their public environments, yet they are often driven out of public places by adult users, restrictive bylaws, or hostile designs. It is also important that children and youth have the opportunity to genuinely participate in the planning of public spaces, and to have their needs considered in the design of the public realm. This book provides both evidence and tools to help effectively advocate for more youth-inclusive public environments, as well as integrate youth directly into both research and design processes related to the public realm. It is essential reading for researchers, design and planning professionals, community leaders, and youth advocates.

Participation in outdoor play is beneficial for the health, well-being, and development of children. Early childhood education centers (ECECs) can provide equitable access to outdoor play. The PROmoting Early Childhood Outside (PRO-ECO) study is a pilot randomized trial that evaluates the PRO-ECO intervention on children’s outdoor play participation. The PRO-ECO intervention included four components: ECEC outdoor play policy; educator training; ECEC outdoor space modification; and parent engagement. This study included eight ECECs delivering licensed care to children ( n  = 217) aged 2.5 to 6 years in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Using a wait-list control cluster randomized trial design, ECECs were randomly allocated to either the intervention arm ( n  = 4) or the wait-list control arm ( n  = 4). Change in the proportion and diversity of observed outdoor play behaviour during scheduled outdoor time was measured. Outcome data were collected at baseline, 6-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up. The intervention effect on children’s outdoor play participation was examined using logistic regression mixed effect models. Controlling for gender, weather and temperature, there were no changes in children’s outdoor play participation following implementation of the PRO-ECO intervention in the between-group analysis. Within-group comparisons also revealed no change in play participation following the PRO-ECO intervention, however, the intervention group showed a positive effect (OR = 1.28, 95% CI = 0.97, 1.70) in play participation 6 months after implementation of the intervention. The findings indicate that further analyses on child- and ECEC-level outcomes collected as part of the PRO-ECO study, including the diversity of children’s play, is required to effectively assess the impact of this intervention.

Engagement in play has been definitively linked to the healthy development of children across physical, social, cognitive, and emotional domains. The enriched nature of high-quality outdoor play environments can afford a greater diversity of opportunities for play than indoor settings. To more effectively design outdoor play settings, we must better understand how the physical environment supports, or hinders, the different types of play which suit children’s needs and interests. However, play typologies or observation tools available to date do not adequately capture the unique characteristics of outdoor play. This paper outlines the development and testing of the Tool for Observing Play Outdoors (TOPO), a new typology of outdoor play, as well as a systematic field observational protocol which can be used to effectively depict children’s behaviors in outdoor spaces, as well as evaluate the play environment itself. The tool can be deployed in either a collapsed or expanded form to serve the needs of a wide range of studies and environments. This new tool represents a significant advance in the ability to fully and effectively study and plan outdoor play environments to provide more diverse, high-quality play settings that will support the healthy development of children across the spectrum.

Outdoor play in nature-rich spaces has been associated with healthy development among young children. The diverse play opportunities afforded to children by natural playspaces can scaffold health benefits, appreciation of nature, and pro-environmental behaviors into adulthood. Environmental features and conditions of outdoor playspaces significantly influence the diversity and quality of play opportunities. Understanding how the physical environment can support high-quality play experiences can inform the design of stimulating, health-promoting playscapes for children. An observational behavior mapping framework was utilized to examine the environmental features of The Backyard, a large natural playscape, associated with play activities among young children. The Tool for Observing Play Outdoors was used to capture outdoor play types OPT), along with associated behavioral and environmental data, during seven days of field observation. While the playspace supported most OPTs, Physical and Exploratory play were most prevalent. Associations with activity intensity and risk play are also presented. Loose parts, particularly natural loose parts, were highly involved in most OPTs, but especially associated with Exploratory play. Ground topography showed some association with several OPTs and warrants further investigation. The environmental features of The Backyard supported an abundant and diverse range of outdoor play activities for young children and families.

Background: Participation in outdoor play has been extensively documented as beneficial for the health, well-being, and development of children. Canadian early childhood education centers (ECECs) are important settings in young children’s lives and provide opportunities to participate in outdoor play. However, there are barriers to the provision of outdoor play opportunities at ECECs, such as adverse weather conditions, poorly designed outdoor spaces, outdoor time policies, and early childhood educator comfort levels. Objective: The PROmoting Early Childhood Outside (PRO-ECO) study is a wait-list control cluster randomized trial that evaluates the impact of the PRO-ECO intervention, an innovative outdoor play intervention, on children’s outdoor play behavior. The purpose of this paper was to provide a detailed overview of the pilot study protocol and the methods that will be used to develop, implement, and evaluate the PRO-ECO intervention. Methods: A total of 8 ECECs delivering licensed care to children aged 2.5 to 6 years in the Greater Vancouver region of British Columbia, Canada, and operated by the YMCA of Greater Vancouver (YMCA GV) are included in this study. Using a wait-list control cluster randomized trial design, we randomly allocated ECECs to either the PRO-ECO intervention arm (n=4) or the wait-list control arm (n=4). The primary outcome measures include changes in the proportion and diversity of observed outdoor play behavior during dedicated outdoor times at the ECECs as measured through observational behavior mapping. Secondary outcome measures include changes in educator attitudes; quality of ECECs’ outdoor play space; and children’s psychosocial strengths, physical activity levels, and social behaviors. A process evaluation of the acceptability of the PRO-ECO intervention in the 8 YMCA GV ECECs will also be assessed. Outcome data will be collected at baseline, 6-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up. Mixed effect models will test the effect of the PRO-ECO intervention on quantitative outcomes. Baseline and postintervention data will be included in the analysis, controlling for the cluster design. Qualitative data will support quantitative findings and provide evidence for the acceptability of implementation. Results: Participant recruitment for this study began in August 2021, and baseline data collection was completed at all 8 ECECs in November 2021. As of April 2022, a total of 130 children have been recruited to participate in this study. Conclusions: The PRO-ECO pilot study will develop, implement, and evaluate the PRO-ECO intervention within 8 YMCA GV ECECs in the Vancouver region of British Columbia, Canada. The findings of this study will be useful for early childhood educators, ECEC providers, and policy makers to consider means for enhancing outdoor play provision and assessing the sustainability of the intervention in ECEC settings. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05075580; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05073380 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/38365

When children engage with the natural world, they experience myriad benefits to their health and well-being. Play in outdoor and natural environments is critical for children's healthy social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development. Developing high-quality, engaging natural play spaces may be one strategy to afford children greater access to the outdoors and nature-based play. Additional research on children's play in nature is needed to inform the design of nature play spaces. Behavior mapping is a flexible observational research method that can effectively capture both children's behavior as well as its social and environmental context, or “milieu.” The authors outline a customized behavior mapping protocol tailored to explore children's play behaviors in outdoor play spaces and provide examples of its value from a recent study in a naturalized play space.

The importance of positive risk opportunities in children’s play environments has been well-established. Risk in play allows children to examine their own capabilities and limits in conditions where the likelihood of serious physical or emotional harm is low. Opportunities for risky play in outdoor settings has been tied to the features available in the physical environment, as well as peer and adult interactions. The varied materials and landforms present in more naturalized play spaces may especially encourage risky play. Scholarship has emerged which examines risky play in natural outdoor environments, but few studies tie positive risk to particular social, behavioural or environmental conditions. This paper investigates factors influencing risk-taking by examining young children’s play behaviours across two studies utilizing the same behaviour mapping framework. Play behaviours were examined in both The Backyard , a natural playspace in Santa Barbara (USA) and the outdoor yards of YMCA childcare centres in Vancouver (Canada). A profile of the range and degree of risky play observed in both sites is presented, followed by a deeper examination of the characteristics and conditions of ‘positive risk’ behaviours. Findings revealed risky play was significantly associated with physical play and more active movement behaviours. Peer interaction was not strongly predictive of positive risk, but some forms of adult interaction were influential in play in The Backyard. Physical environmental features such as natural and fixed elements, along with challenging topographies, were also associated with risky play. Analyses highlight patterns in the conditions and features which appear to support positive risk within outdoor playspaces, and implications for integrating affordances for positive risk into outdoor playspace design.

The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of women in the field of parks and recreation regarding their careers and expectations for the future. A narrative analysis was applied to open-ended responses to a national survey about the career development of professional women who were members of the National Recreation and Park Association. The results include four areas of influence regarding women's careers in parks and recreation: public service motivation, motivation and obligation to family, women in the workplace culture, and working in the field of parks and recreation. Conclusions indicate that women's perceptions regarding their career appeared on a continuum from largely positive to somewhat negative based on how they negotiated these areas of influence.