Home and Neighborhood Environment of Children: Based on Socio-economic Status and Settlement Character

저소득층 아동의 주거환경

The purpose of this study is to examine the regional differences of 0-12 aged children's environment based on their parents' socioeconomic class and on the character of the settlement. One thousand and two hundred households were investigated and the results are as follows. It is revealed that families in low socio-economic class are more likely to be exposed to noise and home crowdedness. Families living in spontaneous settlement are deprived of natural light and the roads to their homes are steep and narrow. Low income families face a housing affordability crisis. Most of them pay housing rent on monthly basis. The basic infrastructure of low income neighborhood is lacking convenient facilities like shopping centers, public transportation systems, banks, public parks, and libraries. This lack of facilities is more severe in spontaneous settlement. Instead, bars and taverns are located in their neighborhood. Accessibility to parks and resource centers is an important factor that makes both middle and low income families consider their neighborhood to be positive and this condition is counted better in social housing area than in spontaneous settlement. On the contrary, social networks like friends and relatives are strong in spontaneous settlement and families in poverty value these relationships. Such networks are weak in social housing area and this difference is not related to their residential period. Low income families living in social housing area are more pessimistic about their future and this view might result from their counterpart middle class neighbors and the weak social networks.