An Analysis of Child-Friendly City Indicators with Emphasis on Educational Spaces (Case Study: Secondary High Schools in Islamabad gharb City)

علوم اجتماعی دانشگاه فردوسی مشهد

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 17 September 2025

Document Type: Applied

DOI: 10.22067/social.2025.92970.1627

Authors

jamal najafi^{* 1}; safiyeh damanbagh²; Mahnaz Hosseini Siahgoli³

¹Director of the Student Research Center, Islamabad Gharb Education Center

²Postdoctoral Researcher in Geography and Urban Planning, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz- Geography Teacher, Islamabad gharb

³Postdoctoral Researcher in Geography and Urban Planning, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

Abstract

the aim of the present study is to examine the indicators of a child-friendly city with an emphasis on educational spaces in high schools in West Islamabad, using the structural equation modeling (SEM) method. The present study selected and examined a sample of 300 students from 27 secondary schools in Islamabad West with a statistical population of about 4588 female and male students using the Cochran formula. The research instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire with confirmed content (face) and construct validity and acceptable composite reliability. The data were analyzed using correlation analysis and structural equation modeling methods using SPSS and Smart PLS software. Structural equation modeling shows that there is a strong and meaningful relationship between the school-friendly city indicators, so that the data fit well with the conceptual model of the research and the model has the necessary fit. This confirms the validity and reliability of the results. Among them, the “educational environment” index with a score of 159.17 has the strongest relationship with the school-friendly city index in the secondary schools of Islamabad West. After that, the “physical environment” indices with a score of 515.15, “social environment” with a score of 837.12, and “psychological environment” with a score of 952.8 are located, which indicates the impact of these indices on the school-friendly city in the secondary schools of Islamabad West. In general, it can be said that the results showed that the educational environment had the greatest impact and the psychological environment had the least impact.

Keywords

Child-friendly city; educational spaces; Child-Friendly School; SmartPls; Islamabad gharb City