The influence of physical factors of play spaces on the creativity of children 6 to 12 years in urban parks

In the increasing development of cities, despite the existence of extensive facilities for children in the present times, no special attention is paid to the effects of the environment on children's creativity. Given the fact that children can go to the playgrounds in city parks independently from age 6 and receive the greatest influence from the environment at this time it is necessary to pay more attention to playgrounds for children to improve their creativity. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to carry out an extensive evaluation of the effect of physical components of playgrounds on creativity development in Iranian children aged 6 to 12 years in urban parks. On this basis, two hypotheses are proposed: firstly, the physical features of the playgrounds including physical diversity, physical flexibility, and vitality in city parks are effective in increasing creativity of children and secondly, there are differences among the levels of effect of physical indices of the environment on dimensions of children’s creativity including Originality, Flexibility of thought, Elaboration and Fluency in city parks. In this research, descriptive and analytical methods were used simultaneously. In the literature review of previous studies and theories, the descriptive method was used to achieve recognition of relationships and correlations and for the relationships between variables and indices, analytical methods were employed. The required data from the population sample was collected with the help of survey methods and through closed questionnaires -researcher-made answers- and after classification correlation between the effective variables in this study were obtained by using SPSS and factor analysis. These factors included flexible thinking, diversity of materials, elements of sign, the presence of natural elements, physical flexibility, elaboration, originality and diversity of visual detail. Then, a research model was developed based on relationships between variables with path analysis and help of Smart PLS software program. Finally, to ensure the validity of the results, an image based questionnaire was used and at the same time the children’s behaviour during play was studied . The results show a significant relationship between environmental factors and creativity, each physical factor has different direct and indirect effects on the dimensions of creativity. Factor of diversity (including variety indices in visual components, sign-making and material variety) highly affected most of the factors as well as children’s creativity. Thefactor of vitality caused by presence of natural elements as a mediating factor is affected by the factor of diversity and it has the highest direct effect on creativity factors including innovation and thought flexibility.Flexibility factor elements as a mediating factor is affected by the factor of diversity and has direct effect on thought flexibility. It should be noted that the factor of marking index elements in playgrounds compared to other factors has less effect on creativity development during play. Finally, according to the conducted study, some recommendations and solutions are proposed in the fields of urban planning and landscape design to improve children’s creativity in playgrounds of city parks.