- Title
- Children’s and adults’ experiences of neighbourhood playgrounds in regional Australia: a mixed methods study of how families build their social networks and children's social competency at their neighbourhood playgrounds
- Creator
- Pickles, Katrien Louise
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2021
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Knowledge of how natural and built environments affect human development and wellbeing has increased substantially over the past three decades. Policies and programs have been implemented aiming to enhance the neighbourhoods that children and their families live and grow in, based on evidence describing how our environments shape our opportunities and behaviours. However, there is a gap in our understanding of how a person affects their development by influencing their neighbourhood. This thesis describes how children and adult caregivers enhance their experiences of neighbourhood playgrounds (public playgrounds provided by a local council in their neighbourhood), and ultimately build social competency and social networks. By highlighting individual social development as it relates to family relationships and wider social ecologies, this thesis contributes to existing research in the discipline of family studies. The historical precedents affecting the design, provision and maintenance of contemporary, neighbourhood playgrounds are questioned and interrogated against the perceptions and lived experiences of children aged 5 - 12 years and adult caregivers in present-day Australia. The processes family groups use to navigate and/or negotiate with their available social networks to enhance their neighbourhood playground experiences are investigated. The geographical site of this study is Wagga Wagga, a regional city located in the state of New South Wales, half-way between Melbourne and Sydney with a population of around 64,000 people (.id, 2016). Wagga Wagga was voted the “most family friendly city” in Australia, in 2014 (Suncorp Bank, 2014). The research employed a methodology flowing from the bioecological model of human development, developed by Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2006). This model emphasises that “the relations between an active individual and [their] active and multilevel ecology constitute the driving force of human development” (Bronfenbrenner, 2005, p. xix). By focusing on these relationships, the ability for a person to influence their own development is highlighted. A mixed-methods approach was designed to generate data to respond to the two key research questions: 1. What behavioural processes do children and their adult caregivers engage in to influence the quality of their neighbourhood playground experiences, across the varied socio-economic demographics in Wagga Wagga? 2. How does the quality of their neighbourhood playground experiences affect children's and adult caregivers' opportunities to develop social competency and family social networks? Two additional research questions emerged to enhance the gathering and analysis of the data: 3. How do playground provider stakeholders' beliefs of the purpose and value of neighbourhood playgrounds influence the design, provision and placement of neighbourhood playgrounds? 4. How do children's (aged from 5–12 years) and adult caregivers' beliefs of neighbourhood playgrounds in Wagga Wagga overlap with, or differ from, playground provider stakeholders’ beliefs? An argument catalogue analysis methodology was used to analyse the thematic overlaps and dissonances in participant responses (Abrami, Bernard, & Wade, 2006). This study identifies two key dissonances, which can be used to re-imagine neighbourhood playground provision and maintenance to better align with the beliefs of families in Wagga Wagga, in high and low income neighbourhoods. The first dissonance is between adult caregiver beliefs of responsibility, and playground provider stakeholders' beliefs of responsibility. The second dissonance is between children's beliefs of belonging and playground provider stakeholders' beliefs of belonging. By focusing on the behavioural processes that adult caregivers and children aged 5 - 12 years engage in to enhance their neighbourhood playground experiences, this research highlights the importance for individuals to be able to 1) manipulate, 2) adapt and 3) care for their neighbourhood playgrounds. Neighbourhood playgrounds offer a unique environment where responsibility for urban design can be shared between professionals and families, enhancing families' sense of support and self-worth. This research offers the concept of "neighbourhood playgrounds as a third space" as a way for children, adult caregivers and playground providers to re-imagine how the responsibility for neighbourhood playground provision and maintenance can be shared. The research findings have the potential to strengthen the link between child and family support initiatives and neighbourhood planning.
- Subject
- bioecological model of human development; third space theory; playgrounds; family social networks; social competency
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1426858
- Identifier
- uon:38480
- Rights
- Copyright 2021 Katrien Louise Pickles
- Language
- eng
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 8 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 187 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |