Abstract
The purpose of this study is to clarify which spatial conditions of high-rise housing will not hinder the development and activities of children. By studying both the daily time schedule of children and their use of living space, we have tried to analyze how the environment of high-rise housing influences children mentally and physically. For this analysis, we gathered data through questionnaires filled out by mothers of infants and grade-school children living in the high-rise housing complex in Port Town of South Harbor, Osaka (total number of samples, 525, August—September, 1985). The daily time schedule of children indicates that high-rise housing does not significantly affect children's life styles. In the case of time spent watching television, infants and children in upper grades did not markedly differ. Although infants living on the higher floors spent more time playing indoors than outdoors compared to those living on the lower floors, we could find no such consistent tendency among grade school children. Even comparison with the NHK survey on the daily time schedule of grade school children did not show that high-rise housing hinders their activities. The proportion of children having their own room is high. Even though in some cases children will share a room, nevertheless, when children reach the upper grades, the proportion of those occupying a private room becomes higher. Both the children and the mothers strongly desire this private room. Mothers, however, think it unnecessary to give a child his own room early. Rather, we found that mothers feel they ought to give the child a room at the proper age. We studied the impact of high-rise housing on a children's mental and physical state by analyzing FUTEISHUSO (melancholic syndrome). The number of grade school children complaining about FUTEISHUSO is quite high. Those who spend little time playing outdoors are usually the ones often scolded by their mothers. These factors and the results which they yield depend on the floor levels families live on. Therefore, it is clear that FUTEISHUSO has something to do with living environment. We found direct and indirect impacts of the living environment on children by considering four factors: emotional stability, social adaptability, activeness, and extroversion.
