the Right to Play: A Comparison of Rural and Urban Outdoor Play Opportunities, Environments and Experience

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) sets out a series of universal children's rights, including Article 31, known as the right to play. Play is central to children's health and development, and outdoor play in particular offers a range of benefits including enjoyment, socialisation, physical activity, learning and skills acquisition. There are, however, growing concerns that children's lives are becoming ever more dominated by indoor, screen-based, sedentary activities at the expense of participation in active, outdoor pursuits. At the same time, it is not yet clear how the different types of environments available to children across the urban-rural gradient impact on outdoor play. The project will explore and compare urban and rural children's outdoor play participation, environments, and experience using a mixed methods approach.
The quantitative element will consist of secondary analysis of existing social survey datasets to investigate levels of participation in outdoor activity amongst rural and urban young people. Datasets already identified as suitable for this study are the ESRC-funded Millennium Cohort Study (UK) and The Scottish Government's Growing Up in Scotland study. Further data sources, e.g. Northern Ireland Life and Times, Kids' Life and Times, Young Life and Times Survey will also be considered for inclusion by the student. These longitudinal data sets will allow for cross-sectional analyses to compare play/outdoor activity amongst urban and rural children; to explore changes over time; and to explore the role of income, gender and class on these patterns. In addition, there are possibilities for identifying a subsample of children who have moved from urban to rural localities (or vice versa) and investigating the effects of such relocation on outdoor play. Emerging findings from the statistical analysis will help to shape qualitative data collection, for example by identifying age thresholds where behaviour or experience changes significantly.
The qualitative (primary research) element will involve case studies (at least one each of urban and rural) which will explore young people's experiences of outdoor play and outdoor activities in depth and develop an inventory of playful environments. The methods used for the primary data collection will ultimately be designed by the student but are likely to include visual methods to engage with child participants e.g. participatory mapping, use of touch table technology, soft GIS.