Janet Loebach | Cornell University (original) (raw)
I am an environmental design researcher and consultant, specializing in evidence-based programming, design and evaluation of environments for special users, such as children, seniors, and those with disabilities or health conditions. Areas of expertise include natural and built play environments, learning and child-care environments, healthcare facilities, residential environments or care facilities, as well as urban and community planning.
I also have expertise in the development and facilitation of participatory design, planning and building processes, particularly with children and youth or other special users. I have also successfully employed participatory design/build processes for the development of community play spaces in developing countries, including Peru and Guatemala.
I have extensive experience in both developing and delivering courses at both the undergraduate (college & university) and graduate level across many disciplines (Environment-Behaviour Studies & Environmental Design, Architecture & Planning, Interior Design, Landscape Design, Engineering and Geography), particularly in the areas of environment-behaviour studies, environmental and ecological psychology, human factors, and research and design of environments for health, learning, play and work. I also have substantial research and teaching experience in qualitative, quantitative, mixed and field research methods.
I currently serve on the Board of Directors of the International Play Association (Canada) and as co-chair of the Children & Youth Environments Network of the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA).
less
Uploads
Papers by Janet Loebach
Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 2023
Routledge eBooks, Sep 26, 2022
Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, Mar 16, 2023
Youth & Society, Jan 18, 2023
This paper proposes a new conceptual approach to the development and utilization of youth-led env... more This paper proposes a new conceptual approach to the development and utilization of youth-led environmental assessments to inform the planning of youth-enabling environments. Interdisciplinary research has established the influential effects of the physical environment on children and adolescents' well-being and development, yet there is a gap in our understanding of how to create everyday environments for youth that speak to their needs and interests and provide opportunities for them to flourish. Engaging youth through participatory action research to both develop and conduct environmental assessments can have positive implications for youth empowerment and well-being while also altering research and planning practices to effectively integrate youth voice. The proposed approach integrates elements from affordance theory, the Capability Approach, and positive youth development within a youth participatory action research framework to create a process that encourages capability formation, fosters
Youth & Society, 2023
This paper proposes a new conceptual approach to the development and utilization of youth-led env... more This paper proposes a new conceptual approach to the development and utilization of youth-led environmental assessments to inform the planning of youth-enabling environments. Interdisciplinary research has established the influential effects of the physical environment on children and adolescents' well-being and development, yet there is a gap in our understanding of how to create everyday environments for youth that speak to their needs and interests and provide opportunities for them to flourish. Engaging youth through participatory action research to both develop and conduct environmental assessments can have positive implications for youth empowerment and well-being while also altering research and planning practices to effectively integrate youth voice. The proposed approach integrates elements from affordance theory, the Capability Approach, and positive youth development within a youth participatory action research framework to create a process that encourages capability formation, fosters
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Outdoor play in nature-rich spaces has been associated with healthy development among young child... more Outdoor play in nature-rich spaces has been associated with healthy development among young children. The diverse play opportunities afforded to children by natural playspaces can scaffold health benefits, appreciation of nature, and pro-environmental behaviors into adulthood. Environmental features and conditions of outdoor playspaces significantly influence the diversity and quality of play opportunities. Understanding how the physical environment can support high-quality play experiences can inform the design of stimulating, health-promoting playscapes for children. An observational behavior mapping framework was utilized to examine the environmental features of The Backyard, a large natural playscape, associated with play activities among young children. The Tool for Observing Play Outdoors was used to capture outdoor play types OPT), along with associated behavioral and environmental data, during seven days of field observation. While the playspace supported most OPTs, Physical...
Children, Youth and Environments
This paper is written by the members of the Children, Youth and Environments Working Group of the... more This paper is written by the members of the Children, Youth and Environments Working Group of the Sustainable Cities and Landscapes Research Hub of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, which at present includes members from Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. We use six spheres of experience that characterize the typical contexts of young people's daily lives to identify their lived environmental experiences in our four countries, as created by the ongoing political and health responses to COVID-19. We discuss both the positive and negative impacts of COVID-19 in these spheres and identify areas for learning from these outcomes.
Frontiers in Psychology
The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted patterns and limited opportunities for social interaction, ... more The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted patterns and limited opportunities for social interaction, which increased already high loneliness rates among college students. Meaningful social interactions can mitigate negative mental health outcomes such as loneliness and bolster social support, which is in turn linked to better self-care practices. Social connection can aid in self-care through social support as well as be considered a self-care practice itself to counter the negative effects of loneliness. This study examined the social interaction patterns of 132 college students from a mid-sized United States university during the pandemic to understand which characteristics support meaningful interactions. Students completed an online survey from October through December 2020 to report details of their 2020 and 2019 social interactions, as well as their most recent interactions, including time spent, the mode (in-person versus virtual), their relationship to others in the interaction,...
Children\u27s time and freedom for independent neighbourhood activity is severely declining, whic... more Children\u27s time and freedom for independent neighbourhood activity is severely declining, which may be adversely impacting their healthy development. This study integrates GPS activity monitoring and environmental analysis in a geographic information system with activity diaries, annotated maps, surveys, and map-enhanced interviews to conduct a deep pattern analysis of children\u27s habitual neighbourhood behaviour (n = 23; aged 9–13 years) from each an urban and suburban school neighbourhood within London, Canada. Patterns in children\u27s primary activities and settings, independent mobility (IM) levels, and perception and use of neighbourhood affordances are examined. Participants note a diverse range of local independent destinations, but habitually spend little time playing outdoors in neighbourhoods. Local activity related to free time available, perception of activity affordances, and license to travel independently. Social and environmental conditions of children\u27s mic...
Frontiers in Psychology
BackgroundWork-related stress is of growing concern to employers because of its significant impli... more BackgroundWork-related stress is of growing concern to employers because of its significant implications for employee dissatisfaction, reduced productivity, and lowered emotional and physical health. Job-related stress is particularly acute among staff members in higher education, negatively impacting the professional work and personal welfare of staff. During the COVID-19 pandemic, stress levels increased, due to work- and non-work-related factors. Work expectations and environments shifted, as did new non-work responsibilities, such as care of dependents. As a result, many people were forced to spend much more time at home. Given the anticipated levels of stress (higher) and the change in time spent at home (increased), we sought to explore if adults were spending more time outdoors, as compared to pre-pandemic times, and if so, for what purposes. We hypothesized that people would be spending more time outdoors in nature during the pandemic, and that they would be doing so to achi...
JMIR Research Protocols
Background Participation in outdoor play has been extensively documented as beneficial for the he... more Background Participation in outdoor play has been extensively documented as beneficial for the health, well-being, and development of children. Canadian early childhood education centers (ECECs) are important settings in young children’s lives and provide opportunities to participate in outdoor play. However, there are barriers to the provision of outdoor play opportunities at ECECs, such as adverse weather conditions, poorly designed outdoor spaces, outdoor time policies, and early childhood educator comfort levels. Objective The PROmoting Early Childhood Outside (PRO-ECO) study is a wait-list control cluster randomized trial that evaluates the impact of the PRO-ECO intervention, an innovative outdoor play intervention, on children’s outdoor play behavior. The purpose of this paper was to provide a detailed overview of the pilot study protocol and the methods that will be used to develop, implement, and evaluate the PRO-ECO intervention. Methods A total of 8 ECECs delivering licens...
The Routledge Handbook of Designing Public Spaces for Young People, 2020
The Young Lives Research Laboratory is concerned with the lives of modern youth from education to... more The Young Lives Research Laboratory is concerned with the lives of modern youth from education to technology to mental health. Technology is ubiquitous in the day to day lives of young people in Canada but little is known about the ways in which digital media affects their mental health, especially for Indigenous youth. Research seldom engages youth to clarify and or interrogate digital media and well-being. This paper addresses the dearth of empirical work and supports the development of practices which better reflect and address health impacts of digital technology on young lives. In using an empowering participatory process to provide Indigenous youth opportunity and tools to produce short digital story films helped them to reflect their unique experiences with digital media and its role in both personal and community well-being. The study also explores youth-produced filmmaking as an effective medium for communicating technology-related experiences and challenges. We share youth...
This pilot study tested a child-guided protocol integrating qualitative field techniques with spa... more This pilot study tested a child-guided protocol integrating qualitative field techniques with spatial analysis tools to explore children's neighborhood perceptions and use. Sixteen children aged 7-9 in London, Canada led researchers and city planners on guided walks of their school neighborhood to document and discuss places of significance to them. Children were equipped with digital cameras and maps to record neighborhood features, while adult facilitators recorded the ongoing dialogue and tracked the routes taken with GPS units. Children's photographs from the walks supported a group photo-elicitation exercise that further probed and clarified the children's community perspectives. Location data from the GPS and narratives allowed for the analysis of children's comments and photographs within a geographic information system (GIS). Thematic and spatial analysis of narratives and photographs revealed significant but complex patterns of neighborhood perception an...
This study examines the neighborhood activity spaces (NAS) of 9-to 13-year-old children (n = 143)... more This study examines the neighborhood activity spaces (NAS) of 9-to 13-year-old children (n = 143) from seven schools in London, Canada. Data from Global Positioning System (GPS) loggers worn for 7 days were used to isolate and test measures for children's pedestrian-based neighborhood activity: the maximum distance traveled from home and relative time spent in neighborhood settings. Descriptive and linear regression analyses examined the influence of individual, perceptual, and environmental factors on neighborhood use and travel. Participants spent a large portion of their out-of-school time (75%) in their NAS. Although traveling far from home on occasion, 94.5% of children's time on average was spent within a short distance of home; participants spent little of their free time in broader neighborhood settings. School travel mode and independent mobility were among the strongest predictors of both distance traveled and time spent close to home. Perceptions of neighborhood safety, neighborhood type, and nearby land uses also influenced local activity.
Youth in the Digital Age, 2019
Purpose: Fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption was examined among children aged seven to 10 years ... more Purpose: Fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption was examined among children aged seven to 10 years in a London, Ontario, neighbourhood. The goal was to determine areas requiring targeted programs to promote healthy lifestyles. Methods: Data were gathered from 136 students in grades 2 to 4. Each student attended one of four elementary schools within a neighbourhood designated a priority by the City of London Child and Youth Network. The Day in the Life Questionnaire was used to collect the data. Instances of FV consumption were compared with Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide (CFG) guidelines. Results: Ninety-eight percent of participants did not follow the CFG-recommended minimum guidelines; they had fewer than five instances of FV consumption daily. Eighty-seven percent had fewer than two instances of FV consumption daily. Conclusions: These data support national findings of low FV consumption among children. (Can J Diet Pract Res. 2013;74:114-118) (DOI: 10.3148/74.3.2013.114) RéSu...
Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 2023
Routledge eBooks, Sep 26, 2022
Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, Mar 16, 2023
Youth & Society, Jan 18, 2023
This paper proposes a new conceptual approach to the development and utilization of youth-led env... more This paper proposes a new conceptual approach to the development and utilization of youth-led environmental assessments to inform the planning of youth-enabling environments. Interdisciplinary research has established the influential effects of the physical environment on children and adolescents' well-being and development, yet there is a gap in our understanding of how to create everyday environments for youth that speak to their needs and interests and provide opportunities for them to flourish. Engaging youth through participatory action research to both develop and conduct environmental assessments can have positive implications for youth empowerment and well-being while also altering research and planning practices to effectively integrate youth voice. The proposed approach integrates elements from affordance theory, the Capability Approach, and positive youth development within a youth participatory action research framework to create a process that encourages capability formation, fosters
Youth & Society, 2023
This paper proposes a new conceptual approach to the development and utilization of youth-led env... more This paper proposes a new conceptual approach to the development and utilization of youth-led environmental assessments to inform the planning of youth-enabling environments. Interdisciplinary research has established the influential effects of the physical environment on children and adolescents' well-being and development, yet there is a gap in our understanding of how to create everyday environments for youth that speak to their needs and interests and provide opportunities for them to flourish. Engaging youth through participatory action research to both develop and conduct environmental assessments can have positive implications for youth empowerment and well-being while also altering research and planning practices to effectively integrate youth voice. The proposed approach integrates elements from affordance theory, the Capability Approach, and positive youth development within a youth participatory action research framework to create a process that encourages capability formation, fosters
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Outdoor play in nature-rich spaces has been associated with healthy development among young child... more Outdoor play in nature-rich spaces has been associated with healthy development among young children. The diverse play opportunities afforded to children by natural playspaces can scaffold health benefits, appreciation of nature, and pro-environmental behaviors into adulthood. Environmental features and conditions of outdoor playspaces significantly influence the diversity and quality of play opportunities. Understanding how the physical environment can support high-quality play experiences can inform the design of stimulating, health-promoting playscapes for children. An observational behavior mapping framework was utilized to examine the environmental features of The Backyard, a large natural playscape, associated with play activities among young children. The Tool for Observing Play Outdoors was used to capture outdoor play types OPT), along with associated behavioral and environmental data, during seven days of field observation. While the playspace supported most OPTs, Physical...
Children, Youth and Environments
This paper is written by the members of the Children, Youth and Environments Working Group of the... more This paper is written by the members of the Children, Youth and Environments Working Group of the Sustainable Cities and Landscapes Research Hub of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, which at present includes members from Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. We use six spheres of experience that characterize the typical contexts of young people's daily lives to identify their lived environmental experiences in our four countries, as created by the ongoing political and health responses to COVID-19. We discuss both the positive and negative impacts of COVID-19 in these spheres and identify areas for learning from these outcomes.
Frontiers in Psychology
The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted patterns and limited opportunities for social interaction, ... more The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted patterns and limited opportunities for social interaction, which increased already high loneliness rates among college students. Meaningful social interactions can mitigate negative mental health outcomes such as loneliness and bolster social support, which is in turn linked to better self-care practices. Social connection can aid in self-care through social support as well as be considered a self-care practice itself to counter the negative effects of loneliness. This study examined the social interaction patterns of 132 college students from a mid-sized United States university during the pandemic to understand which characteristics support meaningful interactions. Students completed an online survey from October through December 2020 to report details of their 2020 and 2019 social interactions, as well as their most recent interactions, including time spent, the mode (in-person versus virtual), their relationship to others in the interaction,...
Children\u27s time and freedom for independent neighbourhood activity is severely declining, whic... more Children\u27s time and freedom for independent neighbourhood activity is severely declining, which may be adversely impacting their healthy development. This study integrates GPS activity monitoring and environmental analysis in a geographic information system with activity diaries, annotated maps, surveys, and map-enhanced interviews to conduct a deep pattern analysis of children\u27s habitual neighbourhood behaviour (n = 23; aged 9–13 years) from each an urban and suburban school neighbourhood within London, Canada. Patterns in children\u27s primary activities and settings, independent mobility (IM) levels, and perception and use of neighbourhood affordances are examined. Participants note a diverse range of local independent destinations, but habitually spend little time playing outdoors in neighbourhoods. Local activity related to free time available, perception of activity affordances, and license to travel independently. Social and environmental conditions of children\u27s mic...
Frontiers in Psychology
BackgroundWork-related stress is of growing concern to employers because of its significant impli... more BackgroundWork-related stress is of growing concern to employers because of its significant implications for employee dissatisfaction, reduced productivity, and lowered emotional and physical health. Job-related stress is particularly acute among staff members in higher education, negatively impacting the professional work and personal welfare of staff. During the COVID-19 pandemic, stress levels increased, due to work- and non-work-related factors. Work expectations and environments shifted, as did new non-work responsibilities, such as care of dependents. As a result, many people were forced to spend much more time at home. Given the anticipated levels of stress (higher) and the change in time spent at home (increased), we sought to explore if adults were spending more time outdoors, as compared to pre-pandemic times, and if so, for what purposes. We hypothesized that people would be spending more time outdoors in nature during the pandemic, and that they would be doing so to achi...
JMIR Research Protocols
Background Participation in outdoor play has been extensively documented as beneficial for the he... more Background Participation in outdoor play has been extensively documented as beneficial for the health, well-being, and development of children. Canadian early childhood education centers (ECECs) are important settings in young children’s lives and provide opportunities to participate in outdoor play. However, there are barriers to the provision of outdoor play opportunities at ECECs, such as adverse weather conditions, poorly designed outdoor spaces, outdoor time policies, and early childhood educator comfort levels. Objective The PROmoting Early Childhood Outside (PRO-ECO) study is a wait-list control cluster randomized trial that evaluates the impact of the PRO-ECO intervention, an innovative outdoor play intervention, on children’s outdoor play behavior. The purpose of this paper was to provide a detailed overview of the pilot study protocol and the methods that will be used to develop, implement, and evaluate the PRO-ECO intervention. Methods A total of 8 ECECs delivering licens...
The Routledge Handbook of Designing Public Spaces for Young People, 2020
The Young Lives Research Laboratory is concerned with the lives of modern youth from education to... more The Young Lives Research Laboratory is concerned with the lives of modern youth from education to technology to mental health. Technology is ubiquitous in the day to day lives of young people in Canada but little is known about the ways in which digital media affects their mental health, especially for Indigenous youth. Research seldom engages youth to clarify and or interrogate digital media and well-being. This paper addresses the dearth of empirical work and supports the development of practices which better reflect and address health impacts of digital technology on young lives. In using an empowering participatory process to provide Indigenous youth opportunity and tools to produce short digital story films helped them to reflect their unique experiences with digital media and its role in both personal and community well-being. The study also explores youth-produced filmmaking as an effective medium for communicating technology-related experiences and challenges. We share youth...
This pilot study tested a child-guided protocol integrating qualitative field techniques with spa... more This pilot study tested a child-guided protocol integrating qualitative field techniques with spatial analysis tools to explore children's neighborhood perceptions and use. Sixteen children aged 7-9 in London, Canada led researchers and city planners on guided walks of their school neighborhood to document and discuss places of significance to them. Children were equipped with digital cameras and maps to record neighborhood features, while adult facilitators recorded the ongoing dialogue and tracked the routes taken with GPS units. Children's photographs from the walks supported a group photo-elicitation exercise that further probed and clarified the children's community perspectives. Location data from the GPS and narratives allowed for the analysis of children's comments and photographs within a geographic information system (GIS). Thematic and spatial analysis of narratives and photographs revealed significant but complex patterns of neighborhood perception an...
This study examines the neighborhood activity spaces (NAS) of 9-to 13-year-old children (n = 143)... more This study examines the neighborhood activity spaces (NAS) of 9-to 13-year-old children (n = 143) from seven schools in London, Canada. Data from Global Positioning System (GPS) loggers worn for 7 days were used to isolate and test measures for children's pedestrian-based neighborhood activity: the maximum distance traveled from home and relative time spent in neighborhood settings. Descriptive and linear regression analyses examined the influence of individual, perceptual, and environmental factors on neighborhood use and travel. Participants spent a large portion of their out-of-school time (75%) in their NAS. Although traveling far from home on occasion, 94.5% of children's time on average was spent within a short distance of home; participants spent little of their free time in broader neighborhood settings. School travel mode and independent mobility were among the strongest predictors of both distance traveled and time spent close to home. Perceptions of neighborhood safety, neighborhood type, and nearby land uses also influenced local activity.
Youth in the Digital Age, 2019
Purpose: Fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption was examined among children aged seven to 10 years ... more Purpose: Fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption was examined among children aged seven to 10 years in a London, Ontario, neighbourhood. The goal was to determine areas requiring targeted programs to promote healthy lifestyles. Methods: Data were gathered from 136 students in grades 2 to 4. Each student attended one of four elementary schools within a neighbourhood designated a priority by the City of London Child and Youth Network. The Day in the Life Questionnaire was used to collect the data. Instances of FV consumption were compared with Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide (CFG) guidelines. Results: Ninety-eight percent of participants did not follow the CFG-recommended minimum guidelines; they had fewer than five instances of FV consumption daily. Eighty-seven percent had fewer than two instances of FV consumption daily. Conclusions: These data support national findings of low FV consumption among children. (Can J Diet Pract Res. 2013;74:114-118) (DOI: 10.3148/74.3.2013.114) RéSu...