Abstract:
Neighbourhoods provide important exposures and resources that can influence the parents' capacity to raise their children and promote healthy child development. This chapter discusses which features of the neighbourhood built environment may be conducive for healthy child development, and highlight gaps in the empirical evidence to support this relationship. The imperatives for this chapter are twofold: first, the global interest in creating liveable, sustainable and equitable neighbourhoods; and second, the centrality of local experience in the 'child-friendly cities' movement. It acknowledges at the outset that the work reviewed has largely been conducted about rather than with children. Children's interaction with, and exposure to, their local built environment largely occurs through physical activity behaviours. Green spaces and contact with nature aids healthy child development. Traffic exposure factors that consistently predict children's neighbourhood interaction include traffic levels, speed, design of crossings, illegal or dangerous parking, poor visibility and poor supervision at pedestrian crossings.
