vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
1
TITLE
PAGE
DECLARATION
ii
DEDICATION
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
iv
ABSTRACT
v
ABSTRAK
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
vii
LIST OF TABLES
xii
LIST OF FIGURE
xiv
LIST OF APPENDICES
xvi
INTRODUCTION
1
1.1
Introduction
1
1.2
Problem Statement
7
1.3
Research Gap
8
1.4
The Aim of the Research
11
1.5
Objectives of Research
11
1.6
Research Questions
11
1.7
Scope of the Study
12
1.8
Significance of the study
12
1.9
Outlines of Research Methodology
13
1.9.1
Stage 1: Literature Review
16
1.9.2
Stage 2: Synthesis of Children‘s Home-School Intermediary
Spaces
17
1.9.3
Stage 3: Data Collection
17
1.9.4
Stage 4: Data Analysis
17
viii
1.9.5
1.10
2
Stage 5: Documentation of Findings
Organization of the Thesis
18
18
LITERATURE REVIEW ON CHILDREN'S SCHOOL JOURNEY
20
2.1
Introduction
20
2.2
School Journey
21
2.2.1
School travel mode and behavior
21
2.2.2
Active transportation
23
2.2.3
Passive travel mode
27
2.2.4
Developmental programs in children‘s traveling to school 28
2.2.5
School travel in children‘s viewpoint
29
2.3
Children‘s accompaniment and mobility restriction
2.4
Walking (traveling) without accompaniment and independent mobility
30
33
2.5
Intermediary Space
36
2.6
Middle Aged Childhood Children
37
2.7
Play
2.7.1
Types of Play
40
2.7.2
Play in Outdoor Environment (as Intermediary Spaces)
41
2.7.3
Play in school journey
45
2.8
Children‘s Favorite Place (Place Preferred by Children)
46
2.9
Affordances of outdoor spaces for children
50
2.9.1
Theory of Affordances
50
2.9.2
Types of Affordances
51
2.9.3
Levels of affordances
51
2.10
Children and Natural Environment (as Intermediary spaces)
52
2.11
Children‘s Spatial Knowledge
57
2.12
Aspects of School Traveling
59
2.12.1
Physical Aspect
60
2.12.2
Social Aspect
62
2.12.3
Cognitive Aspect
64
2.13
3
39
Conclusion
67
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
69
3.1
Introduction
69
3.2
Research Design
70
ix
3.3
Sampling Strategy
71
3.4
Study Area
73
3.5
Types of Data
79
3.5.1
80
3.6
4
Data Collection
3.5.1.1 Questionnaire
80
3.5.1.2 Interview
88
3.5.1.3 Behavioral Mapping
89
Data Analysis
93
3.6.1
Frequency Analysis
93
3.6.2
Factor Analysis
93
3.6.3
Confirmatory Factor Analysis
100
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
101
4.1
Introduction
101
4.2
Minor Themes
102
4.2.1
Travel Mode to and from School
102
4.2.2
Route Choice
103
4.2.3
Place Attachment for Play
105
4.2.4
Play Preference
106
4.2.5
Play Preference with…
107
4.2.6
Play Effect on Accuracy, Happiness, and Learning
111
4.2.7
Parents‘ role on children‘s social interaction
112
4.2.8
Safety and Security
113
4.2.9
Independent Mobility
115
4.3
Major Themes
4.4
Results
4.4.1
116
123
Factor 1: Play Affordances with Living Environmental
Elements (LEE)
124
4.4.2
Factor 2: Place Diversity
129
4.4.3
Factor 3: Time
130
4.4.4
Factor 4: Social Interaction
132
4.4.5
Factor 5: Play Affordances with Non-Living Environmental
Elements (NLEE)
133
4.4.6
Factor 6: Safety and Security
135
4.4.7
Factor 7: Parents‘ Decision and Limitation
138
x
5
4.4.8
Factor 8: Independent Mobility
139
4.4.9
Factor 9: Route Choice
143
4.4.10
Reliability of the Factors
145
4.4.11
Ranking of Underlying Group Factors
145
4.5
Factors‘ Correlations
147
4.6
Spatial Knowledge
158
4.7
Factors‘ Confirmation
159
4.7.1
Theory in SEM
160
4.7.2
Hypothesized Model
160
4.7.3
Model Evaluation
167
4.7.3.1 Goodness-of-Fit
167
4.7.4
171
Model Interpretation
4.7.4.1 Confident Movement to Environmental Structure
172
4.7.4.2 Parents‘ Limitation to Confident Movement
174
4.7.4.3 Spatial Knowledge to Environmental Structure
176
4.7.4.4 Confident Movement to Spatial Knowledge
177
4.7.4.5 Spatial Knowledge to Parents‘ Limitation
179
4.8
Overview on inter-correlations of the factors
180
4.9
Indirect Correlations in CFA Model
182
4.10
Summary of Influential Factors on Children‘s Walking
184
4.11
Conclusion
187
CONCLUSION
190
5.1
190
5.2
Introduction
Intermediary spaces in school way as a realm of children‘s walking 198
5.3
Classification of the factors in terms of driving and impeding
5.4
Structural Model of Influential Factors on children‘s travel mode
choice
193
194
5.5
Contribution of the Research
197
5.6
Limitations of the Research
198
5.7
Scope
of
Further
Research
on
Improving
Home-School
IntermediarySpaces
199
5.7.1
Studies on more extensive variables
199
5.7.2
Studies on more detailed variables
200
5.7.3
Studies on More Plenary Model
200
xi
5.8
Conclusion
6
REFERENCES
7
APPENDIX A-D
200
203
227-238
xii
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE NO.
TITLE
PAGE
1.1
Different outdoors regarding children-environment interaction
3
1.2
Evaluation of ten studies investigating children's school travel
10
1.3
Methods of evaluating children's responses towards outdoor environment 14
2.1
Summary of studies of children's preferred places
49
3.1
Range of Cronbach's alpha and reliability level
84
3.2
Sample size based on confidence level and sampling error
85
3.3
Distributed, returned, and missing questionnaire comparison
94
3.4
Valid response adequacy rate for analysis (Miller, 1991)
94
3.5
Sampling adequacy in this research
96
3.6
Total variance explained
97
3.7
Rotated component matrix
98
4.1
Sample distribution by travel modes
102
4.2
Parents' role on children's route choice
103
4.3
Effect of play equipments on route choice
104
4.4
Correlation between shorter distance and route choice
105
4.5
The percentage of children's presence in playspaces in school journey
105
4.6
Play preference in school journey
106
4.7
The percentage of children's attention to manmade elements
108
4.8
The percantege of children's attention to natural elements
108
4.9
The percentage of children's play preference with affordances in playspaces
4.10
4.11
in school journey
109
The role of vegetation on children's play
110
The role of vegetation on children's excitement, and environment's variety
110
4.12
Play effect on children's accuracy, happiness, and learning
111
xiii
4.13
The percentage of parents' role effect on children's social interaction 112
4.14
The percentage of parents' presence effect on children's social interaction
113
4.15
The percentage of safety and security in the environment
114
4.16
Children's independent mobility in home-school journey
115
4.17
Children's independent mobility regarding to parents' decision
115
4.18
Total variance explained
117
4.19
Rotated component matrix
119
4.20
Structure of principal factors extraction
121
4.21
Results of Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha
145
4.22
Ranking of underlying grouped factors (n=399)
146
4.23
Factors' correlation matrix
148
4.24
A sample Table for children's spatial knowledge data
159
4.25
Rotated component matrix to find latent factors
161
4.26
The indicators of GFI and AGFI in goodness-of- fit model
167
4.27
The probability level of the hypothesized model
168
4.28
The indicator of baseline comparisons in goodness-of- fit model
169
4.29
The parsimony indicator of goodness-of- fit model
169
4.30
The RMSEA indicator of goodness-of-fit model
170
4.31
The HOELTER indicator of goodness-of- fit model
171
‎4.32
Inter-correlations of the factors and their correlation importance
181
4.33
The factors' comparison based on three different aspects
188
xiv
LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE NO.
TITLE
PAGE
1.1
Methods of eliciting data
15
3.1
The location of Omid town in Tehran
73
3.2
A route in children's school journey from Western Park
74
3.3
The aerial map of Omid town with some specific places shown
75
3.4
The various spaces shown in Omid town map
77
3.5
A way through the park to the residential area
79
3.6
A route in children's school journey through the park
79
3.7
The students who are responding the questionnaires
87
3.8
The example of A3-sized sheet of blank map given to the student
90
3.9
An example of A4 paper sheet of sketch map given to the student
92
3.10
Screeplot obtained from the analysis
100
4.1
The main factors captured by underlying grouped factors
123
4.2
A narrow stream in the park that makes possibility for children's play 131
4.3
Hiding affordances of bushes in children's journey to school
126
4.4
Affordances of trees for environmental learning
127
4.5
Two views of children's play rule games in open fields: football, and
running and skipping
4.6
The relation between diversity of the environment and children's
129
walking
130
4.7
Children's social interaction in their journey to school
132
4.8
Parents' accompaniment with children in their school journey
136
4.9
A view of the barriers for children's walking in the sidewalk
136
4.10
A view of Main Street in Omid town (study area)
137
4.11
A view of the wide secondary road designed in front of the school
137
4.12
Children's interests to go shopping in their school journey
141
xv
4.13
Children's preference to play with play equipment in the park
141
4.14
Mal-adaptation of play equipments in children's way to school
144
4.15
High correlations among the factors
149
4.16
The relationships between Safety, Parents' Limitation, and Time
153
4.17
The relationship between Safety, Parents' Limitation, and Route Choice
154
4.18
An example of the sketch maps obtained from children
158
4.19
The measurement model made by Parents' Limitation
162
4.20
The second measurement model created by the latent factors captured by
factor analysis
163
4.21
The third measurement model in hypothesized model
163
4.22
The forth measurement model contributing in hypothesized model
164
4.23
The hypothesized 4- factor CFA model
164
4.24
The fitted 4-factor CFA model
166
4.25
The correlations among the latent factors (Simple form of the model) 172
4.26
The second main connection in 4- factor CFA model
174
4.27
The fourth main connection in CFA model
178
4.28
The latent factor created by underlying factors and behavioral mapping
186
5.1
A diagram indicating the relation of driving and impeding factors
194
5.2
The simple form of CFA model together with four measurement models
196
xvi
LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDIX
TITLE
PAGE
A
Survey questionnaire
219
B
Children‘s interview
227
C
Blank map
229
D
Sketch map
230