Relationship between the neighbourhood built environment and early child development

Hayley Christian; Stephen J Ball; Stephen R Zubrick; Sally Brinkman; Gavin Turrell; Bryan Boruff; Sarah Foster

doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2017.08.010

Relationship between the neighbourhood built environment and early child development

Health Place. 2017 Nov:48:90-101. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2017.08.010. Epub 2017 Oct 10.

Authors

Hayley Christian¹, Stephen J Ball², Stephen R Zubrick³, Sally Brinkman⁴, Gavin Turrell⁵, Bryan Boruff⁶, Sarah Foster⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009; Centre for the Built Environment and Health, School of Sport Science, Exercise&Health and School of Earth&Environment, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009; Telethon Kids Institute, 100 Roberts Road, Subiaco, Western Australia, 6008. Electronic address: hayley.christian@uwa.edu.au.
² Telethon Kids Institute, 100 Roberts Road, Subiaco, Western Australia, 6008; Prehospital, Resuscitation and Emergency Care Research Unit (PRECRU), School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedicine, Curtin University, Kent Street, Bentley, Western Australia, 6102. Electronic address: stephen.ball@curtin.edu.au.
³ Telethon Kids Institute, 100 Roberts Road, Subiaco, Western Australia, 6008; Graduate School of Education, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009. Electronic address: stephen.zubrick@telethonkids.org.au.
⁴ Telethon Kids Institute, 100 Roberts Road, Subiaco, Western Australia, 6008. Electronic address: sally.brinkman@telethonkids.org.au.
⁵ Institute for Health and Ageing, Australian Catholic University, 215 Spring Street, Melbourne, Australia, 3000. Electronic address: Gavin.Turrell@acu.edu.au.
⁶ Centre for the Built Environment and Health, School of Sport Science, Exercise&Health and School of Earth&Environment, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009. Electronic address: bryan.boruff@uwa.edu.au.
⁷ Centre for the Built Environment and Health, School of Sport Science, Exercise&Health and School of Earth&Environment, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009. Electronic address: sarah.foster@uwa.edu.au.

PMID: 29024907
DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2017.08.010

Abstract

The relationship between features of the neighbourhood built environment and early child development was investigated using area-level data from the Australian Early Development Census. Overall 9.0% of children were developmentally vulnerable on the Physical Health and Well-being domain, 8.1% on the Social Competence domain and 8.1% on the Emotional Maturity domain. After adjustment for socio-demographic factors, Local Communities with the highest quintile of home yard space had significantly lower odds of developmental vulnerability on the Emotional Maturity domain. Residing in a Local Community with fewer main roads was associated with a decrease in the proportion of children developmentally vulnerable on the Social Competence domain. Overall, sociodemographic factors were more important than aspects of the neighbourhood physical environment for explaining variation between Local Communities in the developmental vulnerability of children.

Keywords: Built environment; Child; Community; Development; Neighbourhood.

MeSH terms

Censuses
Child
Child Development*
Child, Preschool
Environment Design*
Female
Humans
Male
Parks, Recreational
Residence Characteristics / statistics & numerical data*
Social Environment
Socioeconomic Factors
Surveys and Questionnaires