A safe and playable city for the well-being and health of children: a contribution from Barcelona

Abstract

The Committee on the Rights of the Child and academic literature support that the right to the city should involve environments in which children and adolescents are protected from harm and social violence, in addition to having spaces and opportunities to play outdoors. Consequently, the general objective of the article is to justify the relevance of a safe and playable city to promote the well-being and health of children through the Barcelona Children’s Subjective Well-being Survey (global sample of 3,742 boys and girls aged 10 and 11 years and final analysis sample of 1,066). Specifically, multivariate and cluster analysis are carried out to identify the key variables that are most associated with satisfaction with the neighbourhood, outdoor spaces, and also life satisfaction. The results show that, to promote the children’s subjective well-being in cities, it is necessary that they be safe and playable for boys and girls in the transition to adolescence. Especially that all boys and girls feel that they can walk around their neighbourhood safely, whether during the day or after dark, in addition to considering that they have enough outdoor spaces to play and have fun. Notable differences are also identified depending on whether one lives in contexts with socioeconomic vulnerability or material deprivation, whether one has family or cultural origins abroad and the fact of being a girl.