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

《联合国儿童权利公约》（UNCRC）规定了一系列普遍的儿童权利，包括第31条，即游戏权。游戏对儿童的健康和发展至关重要，户外游戏尤其具有一系列益处，包括娱乐、社交、体育活动、学习和技能获取。然而，越来越多的人担心，儿童的生活越来越多地被室内、基于屏幕的久坐活动所主导，而牺牲了参与积极的户外活动。与此同时，目前尚不清楚城乡梯度中儿童可获得的不同类型的环境如何影响户外游戏。该项目将采用混合方法探索和比较城市和农村儿童的户外游戏参与、环境和体验。定量部分将包括对现有社会调查数据集进行二次分析，以调查农村和城市青年参与户外活动的程度。已经确定适合本研究的数据集是ESRC资助的千禧年队列研究（英国）和苏格兰政府在苏格兰的成长研究。其他数据来源，如北方爱尔兰生活和时代，儿童的生活和时代，年轻的生活和时代调查也将被考虑纳入学生。这些纵向数据集将允许进行横断面分析，以比较城市和农村儿童的游戏/户外活动;探索随着时间的推移而发生的变化;并探索收入，性别和阶级对这些模式的作用。此外，还有可能确定从城市迁移到农村（或从农村迁移到城市）的儿童的子样本，并调查这种迁移对户外游戏的影响。统计分析的新发现将有助于定性数据收集，例如确定行为或经历发生重大变化的年龄阈值。定性（主要研究）部分将涉及个案研究（城市和农村至少各一项），深入探讨青年人的户外游戏和户外活动经历，并编制一份游戏环境清单。用于主要数据收集的方法最终将由学生设计，但可能包括与儿童参与者互动的视觉方法，例如参与性绘图，使用触摸桌技术，软地理信息系统。

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.