三世代変遷からみた人口減少下における農村の子どもの屋外遊び実態に関する研究

－福島県石川町におけるケーススタディ－

抄録

 Due to depopulation children became a minority in Japanese society, hitting the lowest level on record (about 12 percent of total population). In rural areas, it led to the elementary school consolidation, and thus, changes in children's play environments.

 The studies on children’s play in rural area are lacking in up-to-date information. We put the goal to research the current situation. In this paper we present 1) three-generational comparison of children’s play parameters (playmates, time, space, nature play) and 2) research of the possible impact of the school consolidation process on children’s play, specifically, the factor of change in school transportation (walk, school bus, and car).

 For that we applied a questionnaire survey (children N=394, parents N=235, grandparents N=87), augmented by multiple interviews in the period from June to November 2016. The questionnaire was distributed through three primary schools located in Ishikawa town, Fukushima prefecture to children and filled in by the whole family.

 Results:

 1) Three-generational comparison. Modern children’s play parameters (number of playmates, time, space, nature play) are significantly lower, compare to their parents and grandparents’ generations. Currently, about 30% of children who play after school have no friends. Playtime in outdoor spaces is decreasing across three generations. Currently, children's play is almost limited to private space (house) and public institutionalized space (school, park). 2) Nature play experience is not only decreasing with each generation, but the number of children having experience without adults’ assistance is also lessening. From interviews, we understand that children tend not to recognize nature spaces as a play space. 3) The number of prohibitions almost don't change over three generations. Interviewed adults expressed doubts about the fact that prohibitions affect children's exploration activity in nature. Parents rather saw the reason for little outdoor activity in the lack of interest in the children themselves and the lack of friends in the neighborhood. 4) Nowadays children prefer to make an appointment using a mobile phone, SNS. Since friends live in a distance, parents need to support children’s play by moving to a location by car, and in an overall family is getting more involved in children’s mobility. 5) We checked if the transportation by car and school bus compare to walking affect the children play parameters like playmates number, age difference, play time, space, nature play experience. We found that among walking children the percent of children with no friends is only 20%, whereas in the school bus users’ category 45% and among car users 40% children do not have friends. Children using the school bus have a significantly shorter playtime, compare to walking and moving by family car, probably due to the need to return in accordance with a rare bus schedule. However, we did not reveal a significant connection of transportation with other play parameters.

 For rural planning, we suggest designing institutionalized spaces, which would encourage children’s play activities in general and nature play in particular. This should follow with the support of the possibilities to expand the play activity to the wild nature, and non-institutionalized space.