Department of Care Science, Faculty of Health and Society, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden.
The Health Promotion Platform in Collaboration, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden.
Child Care Health Dev. 2021 Jan;47(1):57-69. doi: 10.1111/cch.12809. Epub 2020 Sep 29.
Children are more vulnerable than adults to environmental risks. Also, children have little control over their environment. Unlike adults, they may be both unaware of risks and unable to make choices to protect their health. Children living in especially vulnerable areas might be even more at risk due to socio-economic factors, immigration and high crime rates. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe the perceptions that schoolchildren from a socially vulnerable area have of safe environments.
Fifty-two 9-year-old schoolchildren from a socially vulnerable area participated in this study. The data collection consisted of an environmental walk with photovoicing, followed by rating of the photos and a focus-group discussion elaborating on the photos and ratings. Six focus groups, with six to eight children in each group, were conducted and analysed using inductive content analysis.
The results show that, according to the children, places that they think are bright and beautiful, where they can do fun things with others and do not risk being exposed to danger, create safety. To increase safety, the children suggested cleaning up, making the environment beautiful with grass and flowers and painting it in nice colours. Furthermore, they suggested that building features that increase the opportunities to play and engage in activities together with others would improve safety and enhance protection and surveillance.
All children have the right to protection and safety. Therefore, it is important to create safe environments for all children by listening to children's own voices.
儿童比成年人更容易受到环境风险的影响。此外，他们对自己的环境几乎没有控制能力。与成年人不同，他们可能既不知道风险，也无法做出选择来保护自己的健康。由于社会经济因素、移民和高犯罪率，生活在特别脆弱地区的儿童可能面临更大的风险。因此，本研究的目的是描述社会脆弱地区的学童对安全环境的看法。
本研究共有 52 名来自社会脆弱地区的 9 岁学童参与。数据收集包括环境步行与照片发声，随后对照片进行评分，并进行焦点小组讨论，以阐述照片和评分。进行了六组焦点小组讨论，每组有六到八名儿童，采用归纳内容分析法进行分析。
研究结果表明，根据儿童的看法，那些他们认为明亮美丽、可以与他人一起做有趣的事情、不会有暴露在危险中的风险的地方会带来安全感。为了提高安全性，儿童建议清理环境，用草和花美化环境，并将其涂成漂亮的颜色。此外，他们还建议增加可以一起玩耍和互动的建筑设施，这将提高安全性，并加强保护和监督。
所有儿童都有受到保护和安全的权利。因此，通过倾听儿童自己的声音，为所有儿童创造安全的环境非常重要。
