Affordances of children's environments in the context of cities, small towns, suburbs and rural villages in Finland and Belarus

Affordances which according to Gibson (1986/1979) refer to the functionally significant properties of the environment provide a psychologically relevant concept for the analysis of the evolving child-environment relationship. The affordance taxonomy of Heft (1988) was applied in a recent study on childrens environments of varying degrees of urbanisation. Affordances for sociality were proposed as an addition to the taxonomy. The study was based on individual interviews with 8-9 year-old children in Finland (n=98) and in Belarus (n=143). The settings included urban, suburban, small town, and rural environments in both countries as well as a radioactively contaminated area in Belarus. Significant differences were found among the communities and between the countries in affordance availability, in the level of affordances (perceived, used and shaped) and in the distribution of affordances within the categories of the taxonomy. Also the location of the affordances, whether they were at home, in the yard, in immediate surroundings or somewhere further differed significantly in different communities. Further studies are suggested on the elaboration of the affordance taxonomy for different user groups and varying settings. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd.