Urban Children's Access to their Neighborhood

One New York City neighborhood was investigated to determine changes in its children's use of local public space between 1915 and 1976. Twenty-nine adults were interviewed on their experiences there as children. In addition, such archival sources as U.S. census reports were consulted for demographic changes. The interviews were content analyzed to detect changes over time in various aspects of children's activities. Substantial changes were detected in (a) the age at which children were first allowed outdoors without supervision, (b) the number and quality of settings visited, (c) the number and nature of environmental obstacles, (d) the number and nature of parent-imposed restrictions, and (e) the number of professionally supervised activities undertaken. It was found that both the degree to which the neighborhood environment was supportive of children's play and children's access to their neighborhood have declined substantially since the 1940s.