Allez jouer dehors! Contributions de l'environnement urbain au développement et au bien-être des enfants

L'article examine comment l'environnement urbain influe sur le bien-être des enfants, de même que sur leur tendance à en profiter pour jouer et se développer. Les ressources et contraintes de l'environnement urbain sont analysées pour deux milieux : les espaces extérieurs adjacents à la maison et les terrains de jeu. Puis, sont étudiés les impacts des éléments naturels du paysage urbain, du trafic et de l'hostilité du voisinage. Quelques pistes sont identifiées sur les plans de l'intervention, de la recherche et de l'élaboration ou la mise en œuvre de politiques sociales, suggérant comment les psychologues peuvent soutenir le développement des enfants dans la ville. The virtues of children playing outside have been widely promoted. Nevertheless, the poor quality of the urban environment is partly behind the reason why children remain indoors more than in former times. This article brings together knowledge from environmental, community, developmental and health psychology for two purposes: The first is to examine the influence of the urban environment on children's wellness and on how children benefit from their environment to play and develop. The second objective presents recommendations regarding intervention, research and social policy for psychologists to follow favouring children's development within the urban environment. We focus on two urban environments: Spaces adjoining their residence provide children with stimulation, opportunities to run around, play and explore the physical and social world, develop personal identity, self-esteem and enhance their ability to deal with stress. However, children have less and less access to these spaces in the city, primarily because of parents' fears of traffic, deviance, criminality as well as the deterioration of the physical environment. The second urban environment we focus on are playgrounds, which can also serve children's physical, cognitive and social developmental needs. However, playgrounds may not live up to the expectations of children and pose their own problems of safety due to poor design or maintenance of equipment, as well as issues of social deviance such as bullying or criminality. The impact of three environmental characteristics are studied. The contact of children with natural elements (vegetation, water, earth, small animals) furthers their comprehension of nature and their creativity, and promotes their interaction with the world. Moreover, natural elements exert positive physiological