Does having children or a dog influence visits to urban green spaces?

Marco Garrido-Cumbrera, Olta Braçe, Gina Suárez-Cáceres and José Correa-Fernández

Landscape Research. 2020. 45:8, 1018-1031.

Objetive

This study evaluates the differences between people who visit urban green spaces according to the type of accompaniment and whether it determines the visit, appreciation of green spaces and physical activity.

Methods

The variables analysed in this study were: (1) sociodemographic characteristics: age (years), gender (male/female), marital status (married, single, divorced, in a relationship, widowed), level of education (no formal education, primary school, high school, university) and job status (employed, unemployed, student, retired, homemaker, on temporary sick leave); (2) engagement in physical activity (yes/no); (3) appreciation regarding the number of green spaces in Carmona (sufficient, medium, insufficient); (4) frequency of visits (never/rarely, one to two times per week, three to four times per week, daily).

Results

The results show that walking with a dog or children explains the highest frequency of visits, followed by walking with an adult or alone. Men visit a greater proportion of green spaces either accompanied by another adult, a dog or alone. The exception is accompaniment with children, where women predominate.

Conclusion

Walking a dog encourages daily visits to green spaces, and people who walk with a dog or children appreciate more the amount of green spaces available to them. In the absence of children, general practitioners and psychologists should prescribe adopting a dog as a way to promote healthy habits in people most at risk of loneliness and the elderly, since this will increase their visits to green spaces.

Enlace al artículo: https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2020.1808966