A Bibliometric Analysis of Child-Friendly Cities: A Cross-Database Analysis from 2000 to 2022

Abstract

This study performs a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of research on child-friendly cities (CFC) conducted from 2000 to 2022. It investigates the global and domestic research trends using two prominent databases, Web of Science (WOS) and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). The study reveals increasing global and domestic research publications on CFC, demonstrating an expanding interest in the area. The contributions of this study are threefold. First, it describes the status of the CFC in two databases based on quantitative analysis and an intuitive visualization, identifying patterns, hotspots, trends, and gaps. Second, by comparing the two databases, we have the following four findings: (1) the advancement of CFC construction and research focus is linked to economic development; (2) collaborative efforts involving multiple parties are crucial for policy implementation and engaging children in decision making; (3) the two databases demonstrate differing research emphases on the environment; (4) it is essential to broaden the channels for child participation. Finally, we propose the PAF dynamic conceptual model call for the sustainable development of CFCs.

1. Introduction

Rapid worldwide urbanization is often associated with increased economic development; it also introduces new challenges for the urban population. It is estimated that by 2050, 70% of children will reside in urban areas [1]. In particular, the development of children is impacted due to high-rise residential buildings and the unequal distribution of children’s play spaces in urban landscapes. The contradiction between children’s development and urban spatial development has gradually become apparent. Improving child-friendliness in urban environments is a serious and urgent issue in urban planning [2]. In 1996, UNICEF and UN-Habitat jointly proposed the International Child-Friendly Cities Initiative (CFCI), which incorporates the needs of children into the planning of neighborhoods or cities, and has become the “charter” for the construction of child-friendly urban spaces [3,4]. In the same year, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNCHS) issued the “Global Report on Human Settlements: The Urbanization of the World”, which provided clear instructions on the ideal residential environment for children. It is important that the needs of children and youth, especially those related to their growth in living environments, should be fully considered in the process of urban planning [5,6].

In response, scholars have researched various aspects of child-friendly cities, such as green spaces [7], playgrounds [8], streets [9], community spaces [10,11], independent mobility [9], and others. Although study focuses may differ, they all emphasize human and environmental aspects tailored to children’s needs, offering guiding principles for child-friendly city practices. Still, this library’s growth has not strongly impacted the urban built environment in child-responsive ways [12]. With the gradual popularization of child-friendly cities (CFC) in China, many local governments have launched practical activities to build CFCs [13]. Chinese scholars have conducted research from various perspectives, such as children’s recreational spaces [14], community street spaces [15], and analyses of foreign cases [16].

In China, the “14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Outline of the 2035 Long-Range Goals of the People’s Republic of China” has outlined critical tasks for the construction of CFCs [17,18]. This signifies that, in the coming decade, building CFCs will be a focal point of urban development in China. With the rise in academic publications regarding CFCs, it is critical to synthesize existing knowledge and provide evidence-based insights for future studies. In the past, attempts have been made to review the current state of this research in the context of China. In 2010, Zhang conducted a literature review of studies on outdoor public activity spaces for children using both domestic (the CNKI database: CNKI is the world’s largest continuously and dynamically updated full-text database of academic journals and periodicals, containing 11,215 journals with more than 65.2 million publications since 1994) and international (Elsevier, WOS, Springer Link, and EBESCO) databases. It was pointed out that there were still deficiencies in Chinese research on children’s participation, preferences for outdoor activity spaces, and influencing factors [19,20]. In recent years, as an increasing number of cities in China have realized the importance of protecting children’s rights, they have proposed the creation of CFCs. Consequently, research regarding this has gradually increased. Xu [21] extracted evaluation indicators of children’s mobility safety in the community environment from English articles. Using CiteSpace software (6.1.R6), Zhang [22] analyzed 286 CFC-related articles from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database from 2008 to 2022. It was found that current CFC-related research in China is mainly focused on urban planning policymaking, architectural landscape design, and children’s social issues. There is still a lack of a systematic theoretical framework for children’s psychology and behavioral patterns and relevant evaluation indicators are not well established. In the field of review articles in the English language, Viviana A and Femke’s research suggests that there is currently a knowledge deficit about the interactions between the various levels of governance in the policy cycle [23]. Although the scholars mentioned above have conducted relevant research on CFC-related topics, how to better promote CFC construction still requires further exploration. Therefore, it is necessary to compare the research progress both in China and internationally to provide recommendations for research and practices related to CFCs.

In response, this study aims to conduct a comprehensive scientometric review to understand the current status of CFC research and what challenges are still faced in building CFCs at this stage and how they should be better promoted. This study uses bibliometric analysis to select the relevant literature on CFCs from 2000 to 2022 in both the CNKI databases and Web of Science. Multiple perspectives are selected for visualization analysis to explore the development process, cutting-edge research characteristics, and future trends for CFCs in China and abroad.

2. Methods

2.1. Research Methodology

With the ongoing increase in academic publications, bibliometric studies are becoming more and more popular and respected as a methodical and relevant approach for gathering and comprehensively synthesizing the scientific literature on a particular topic [24]. To extract and analyze data, bibliometric approaches that rely on content or citation analysis are frequently employed. These methods involve extracting scientific publications from electronic databases such as the Web of Science (WOS) through content or citation analysis to identify trends and patterns and assess the impact of these publications [25]. This study uses bibliometric and content analysis to examine the current research on CFCs in China and other countries. (1) Bibliometric analysis: Using CiteSpace software to identify research trends and visually represent the literature metrics, including generating keyword networks and timelines based on high-frequency and high-betweenness centrality keywords [26,27,28]. CiteSpace software is a valuable tool for visualizing the citation network within academic abstracts, providing a deeper understanding of the knowledge structure and revealing patterns and trends in its development [29]. By employing techniques such as co-citation pathfinder, the CiteSpace software conducts econometric projections to identify key hotspots and knowledge inflection points, which in turn help to elucidate and predict phenomena within the field [30]. Co-Occurrence13.4 (COOC13.4) software [31] is used for frequency statistics to generate a country/keyword co-occurrence matrix. UCINET [32] is used to analyze the country/keyword matrix, visualize co-occurrence results, quickly find important country/keywords, and reflect their structure and relationship [33]. (2) Content analysis: By utilizing keyword co-occurrence results, cluster analysis, and burst terms, this approach scientifically identifies popular topic terms within a field. Subsequently, the contributions of different researchers to research hotspots in the domain are elucidated (Figure 1). Employing the aforementioned research methods, this study aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the pertinent literature in the field of CFCs within the context of urbanization in China. The objective was to illustrate the interconnections among various research areas concerning CFCs.

The social network analysis graph obtained using social network analysis tools reflects the strength of the connections between keywords in a visual and intuitive manner through a node–link diagram. It provides a visual display of co-occurring results, enabling the rapid identification of core and peripheral keywords and reflecting their structure and relationships [33]. To make the social network diagram presented by UCINET more readable, WOS selected the top 55 keywords with a frequency greater than three ranked by frequency of appearance; CNKI selected the top 65 keywords with a frequency greater than five ranked by frequency of appearance.

2.2. Data Sources

This study plans to utilize an extensive, cross-database approach to enhance the range, diversity, and extent of information in the literature related to CFCs. To ensure the inclusiveness of the literature sample, this study worked with vast and extensive journal data sources by utilizing the CNKI database for the Chinese literature and the core collection database of the WOS for foreign literature. The former is the largest continuously updated full-text database of Chinese academic journals [27], whereas the latter is the world’s largest and most comprehensive academic information resource platform, with the widest coverage of disciplines [33]. First, using three combinations of “child-friendly city”, “child-friendly”, “child participation”, “planning and design”, and related keywords, we conducted a search in CNKI (see Appendix A). Secondly, we conducted a search in the WOS core collection using “child-friendly city”, “child participation”, and other keywords as well as selecting “article” as the document type. The searches were made from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2022 (for details, see

Table A1. Details of the data retrieval criteria and results from WOS.

	Query 1	Query 2	Query 3
Search Database	Web of Science Core Collection
Search time frame	2000.1.1–2022.12.31
Query String	(((TS = (child-friendly city)) OR TS = (child friendly city)) OR TS = (child-friendly cities)) OR TS = (child friendly cities)	(TS = (“child-friendly” OR “child friendly”)) AND TS = (“city” OR “cities” OR “community” OR “communities” OR “urban” OR “rural” OR “public space” OR “public spaces” OR “open space” OR “open spaces” OR “green space” OR “green spaces” OR “park” OR “parks” OR “playground” OR “playgrounds”)	(TS = (“child friendly” OR “child-friendly” OR “child participation” OR “child-participation” OR “children’s participation”)) AND TS = (“urban planning” OR “city planning” OR “town planning” OR “regional planning” OR “urban design” OR “traffic planning” OR “transportation planning” OR “spatial planning” OR “planning strategies” OR “planning strategy” OR “design strategies” OR “design strategy” OR “urban governance” OR “city construction” OR “ city constructions” OR “urban construction” OR “urban constructions”)
Research Area	Environmental Sciences Ecology or Psychology or Sociology or Behavioral Sciences or Urban Studies or Geography or Social Sciences Other Topics or Public Administration or Demography or Family Studies or Psychiatry or Social Issues or Transportation or Architecture or Social Work or Forestry	Environmental Sciences Ecology or Psychology or Sociology or Geography or Behavioral Sciences or Urban Studies or Social Sciences Other Topics or Family Studies or Social Issues or Public Administration or Social Work or Architecture or Psychiatry	Environmental Sciences Ecology or Geography or Urban Studies or Sociology or Public Administration or Social Sciences Other Topics or Public Environmental Occupational Health or Social Issues or Architecture
Language	En
Search results	290	241	54
Final records	265

and

Table A2. Details of the data retrieval criteria and results, CNKI.

	Query 1	Query 2	Query 3
Search Database	CNKI Core Collection
Search time frame	2000.1.1–2022.12.31
Query String	主题 = 儿童友好城市 TS = (child-friendly city)	主题 = (儿童友好 + 儿童参与 (精确)) * (城市 + 社区 + 乡镇 +区域 + 空间 + 设计 + 规划 + 绿地 + 开放空间 (精确)) (TS = (“child-friendly” OR “child-participation”)) AND TS= (“city” OR “community” OR “rural” OR “region” OR “space” OR “design” OR “plan” OR “green space” OR “open space”)	主题 = (儿童友好 + 儿童参与) * (规划 + 设计 + 布局) * (建成环境 + 建筑 + 绿地 + 绿地空间 + 绿地系统 + 公园 + 绿化 + 开放空间 + 绿色 + 生态 + 开敞空间 + 经济 + 公共空间 + 慢行交通 + 步行 + TOD + 城市道路) (TS = (“child-friendly” OR “child-participation”)) AND TS = (“plan” OR “design” OR “layout”) AND TS = (“built environment” OR “building” OR “green space” OR “green field” OR “green space system” OR “park” OR “green” OR “ecosystem” OR “open space” OR “non-motorized transportation” OR “walking” OR “TOD” OR “urban road”)
Research Area	建筑工程 (Architecture and Engineering)
Language	CHN
Search results	191	761	250
Final records	654

). For journal articles obtained from CNKI, we manually excluded the irrelevant literature, such as reports about events related to CFCs in local cities, and removed duplicate papers using CiteSpace; consequently, a total of 654 articles were obtained. For papers retrieved from WOS, duplicate papers were removed using CiteSpace, and 265 articles were ultimately obtained.

3. Results

3.1. Number of Published Papers and Publication Trend

The number of publications over the years reflects the sophistication of the theoretical level and pace of academic research on CFCs. To investigate the historical range of research topics and evolving trends of research hotspots, this study graphed the yearly count of research articles pertaining to CFCs (Figure 2). Using the natural breakpoint method, the research publications from CNKI were divided into three stages based on the number of publications for each year [34], namely the stage of fluctuating growth (2004–2017), the stage of rapid growth (2017–2020), and the stage of drastic growth (2020–2022) (Figure 2). The relevant literature from WOS was divided into two stages, namely the stage of fluctuating growth (2000–2021) and the stage of rapid growth (2021–2022).

The literature related to child-friendly cities in China emerged in 2004, and the number of publications remained below ten articles per year until 2016. Since 2017, there has been a continuous upward trend in the number of publications, indicating increased attention from the domestic industry and growing research interest in the field of CFCs (Figure 2). By 2021, the number of publications had shown a sharp increase. In contrast, foreign publications on this topic date back to 2001, when there was a relatively stable number of publications, hovering around ten articles per year until 2016. From 2014 to 2017, there was a period of rapid increase in the number of publications, followed by a relatively stable period from 2017 to 2021 and a rapid increase in publications in 2022.

The top five domestic journals in terms of publication volume were Beijing Planning Review, Chinese & Overseas Architecture, Urbanism and Architecture, Shanghai Urban Planning Review, and Architecture & Culture (

Table 1. The top 10 journals in terms of the number of published papers.

Ranker	WOS Journal Name	NP	CNKI Journal Name	NP
1	International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health	23	Beijing Planning Review	21
2	Children’s Geographies	13	Chinese & Overseas Architecture	21
3	BMC Public Health	5	Urbanism and Architecture	17
4	Children and Youth Services Review	5	Shanghai Urban Planning Review	17
5	Urban Forestry & Urban Greening	5	Architecture & Culture	14
6	Sustainability	5	Human Settlements	11
7	Journal of Transport Geography	4	Urban Development Studies	10
8	BMJ Open	4	Contemporary Horticulture	10
9	Cities	4	Urban Planning International	9
10	Child Abuse & Neglect	4	Design Community	8

NP, number of publications.

). The top five foreign journals in terms of publication volume were the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Children’s Geographies, BMC Public Health, Children and Youth Services Review, and Children and Youth Services Review (Table 1). Unlike in China, research on CFCs published in foreign journals covered a wider range of disciplines and were not only limited to spatial planning and design-related journals but also extended to various disciplines such as environmental health and public health, child welfare, and sociology. For example, the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health focuses on interdisciplinary research in environmental health sciences and public health, whereas Child Abuse and Neglect focuses on child welfare, mental health, and social service systems. This is mainly because, compared with China, some Western countries experienced urbanization earlier and so their urbanization levels are higher. They have shown an earlier concern for children’s living environments in cities, resulting in more abundant research outcomes [19,35]. Although there are many research papers on CFCs in China, the journals publishing the studies still focus primarily on urban planning, environmental design, and other related fields. The top 10 journals in terms of publication volume were mainly related to planning and design. Therefore, it can be seen that there is still room for development in the interdisciplinary communication of research on child-friendly cities in China.

3.2. Author Cooperation Network

Assessing the level of collaboration within a specific academic field is crucial for evaluating the progress of the research in the discipline [28]. In this study, the frequency statistics function of COOC was employed to identify the top ten researchers based on the number of published papers (

Table 2. Top 10 researchers in WOS and CNKI.

Ranker	WOS Researchers	NP	Ranker	CNKI Researchers	NP
1	Smith, Melody	5	1	Shen, Yao	16
2	Couto De Oliveira, Maria Ines	4	2	Liu, Lianlian	7
3	Venancio, Sonia Isoyama	4	3	Lie, Lei	7
4	Witten, Karen	4	4	Lin, Ying	6
5	Buccini, Gabriela	3	5	Liu, Sai	5
6	Carroll, Penelope	3	6	Zong, Lina	5
7	Egli, Victoria	3	7	Lei, Yuechang	5
8	Said, Ismail	3	8	Yu, Yifan	5
9	Bertoldo, Juracy	2	9	Deng, Lingyun	5
10	Perez-Escamilla, Rafael	2	10	Qiu, Hong	4

NP, number of publications.

); subsequently, we visualized the scholar collaboration network map (Figure 3). According to Price’s law, the minimum number of publications for core scholars in a given field is $m=0.749\ast \sqrt{n_{max}}$ (where n_max is the number of publications of the scholar with the most publications in the field) [36]. In the CNKI search results, m = 2.996, meaning researchers with three or more publications were identified as core researchers in the field. In the WOS search results, m = 1.67, so researchers with two or more publications were identified as core researchers in the field. There were 54 authors with more than two publications in the WOS search results and 46 authors with more than three publications in the CNKI search results.

The total number of publications from China exceeds that from foreign countries, and the most productive authors in China have more publications than the most productive authors in foreign countries. Foreign authors had more collaborative teams than Chinese authors. The author with the most publications in the CNKI database is Shen Yao. Since 2015, Shen has been primarily engaged in child-friendly city research [35], with a focus on children’s activities and health at the operational level of architectural and spatial design. Another noteworthy author is Zong Lina, a government official affiliated with the China Children’s Centre who primarily explores the direction of child-friendly urban development from the perspective of children’s needs and rights [37]. Both researchers represent studies in the realms of architectural planning based on spatial design and sociology centered on children’s social issues. Melody Smith, the author with the most publications in the WOS database, focuses on the relationship between children’s health and the environment [38,39,40]. Karen Witten, a New Zealand scholar, focuses on realizing children’s rights, such as the right to participation and the right to use space in the city [41,42,43].

3.3. Analysis of Research Institution Collaboration Networks

In terms of publishing institutions, among the Chinese institutions, Hunan University has the highest number of publications and closely collaborates with multiple research institutions (Figure 4). Cooperation networks have been established among institutions such as the Shenzhen Planning & Design Institute, South China University of Technology, Tongji University, and Hunan University. These research institutions are located in the southeastern region of China and in Guangdong province (Figure 5). This is closely related to Shenzhen being one of the earliest regions in China to propose the comprehensive construction of CFCs [13]. However, cooperation between the southern and northern regions of China needs to be further strengthened.

Columbia University has established collaborative research relationships with multiple research institutions, whereas the University of Melbourne has closer collaborations with other institutions. Tongji University in China has established collaborative research relationships with Clemson University but has not yet formed a core research team. Overall, China’s cooperation with foreign universities needs be strengthened.

3.4. Analysis of Keywords

3.4.1. Keyword Centrality Analysis

Centrality is a measurement index that measures the status of keywords in a network. The closer to the center, the more important the status of the keywords, which is the research focus of the field [44]. We copied the matrix constructed from COOC into UCINET and obtained the relevant centrality results through software calculations. The analysis of the keyword centrality results in domestic and foreign spatial planning research is presented in

Table 3. Results of the network analysis of the CFC keywords in WOS.

Ranker	Key Words	Degree	Betweenness
1	Child-Friendly Cities	25	164.437
2	Children	24	135.444
3	Urban Planning	11	10.827
4	Built Environment	8	11.007
5	Participation	4	0
6	Children’s Participation	5	1.75
7	Independent Mobility	9	25.351
8	Urban Design	9	25.735
9	Child Protection	3	1.033
10	Children’s Rights	4	1.987

and

Table 4. Results of the network analysis of the CFC keywords in CNKI.

Ranker	Key Words	Degree	Betweenness
1	Child-friendly	145	77.994
2	Child-friendly city	97	54.077
3	Children	61	60.469
4	Public space	61	14.167
5	Child participation	42	8.504
6	Child-friendly community	24	8.575
7	Residential area	27	4.483
8	Landscape design	23	3.468
9	Community	27	2.383
10	Design strategy	15	14.7

.

(1)

Degree centrality

Degree centrality is a measure of whether a keyword is in the core position of a network [44]. From the analysis results of centrality of high-frequency keywords in foreign spatial planning research, it can be found that the degree centrality of the following five keywords, “Child-Friendly Cities”, “Children”, “Urban Planning”, “Built Environment”, and “Participation”, ranked in the top five and are located in the core position of the network (Table 3). From the centrality analysis results of high-frequency keywords in Chinese spatial planning research, the top five keywords located in the core position of the network are, in ranking order, “Child-friendly”, “Child-friendly city”, “Children”, “Public space”, and “Child participation” (Table 4). Through comparison, it can be found that research on child-friendliness in foreign countries is not only limited to “public space” but also the attention on the built environment and urban planning is increasingly prominent.

(2)

Betweenness centrality

Betweenness centrality represents the bridging role of a certain keyword in a relational network, and its value reflects the degree of dependence on central keywords when connected to other keywords [44]. From the analysis of the betweenness centrality of high-frequency keywords in foreign research on child friendly cities, it can be found that the betweenness centrality of “Child-Friendly Cities”, “Children”, “Urban Design”, and “Independent Mobility” rank in the top four, whereas the two keywords with the smallest betweenness centrality are “Participation” and “Child Protection” (Table 3). From the analysis of the betweenness centrality of high-frequency keywords in Chinese research on child-friendly cities, it can be found that the top three keywords in betweenness centrality are “child-friendly”, “children”, and “child-friendly city” (Table 4).

3.4.2. Keywords Cluster Analysis

Cluster analysis can help us understand the main research areas in spatial planning [26,33]. By using the “Cluster” function in CiteSpace to perform cluster analysis on keywords, it can roughly reveal the research hotspots and categories in the field of spatial planning at home and abroad and also discover the current stage of research. The clustering results of research on child-friendly cities at home and abroad obtained from CiteSpace are shown in the figure, with the order starting from zero. The smaller the number, the more keywords included in the cluster.

In Figure 6, modularity Q = 0.6395 (larger than 0.3) and mean silhouette = 0.8542 (larger than 0.5), this signifies the accuracy and dependability of the clustering process. In Figure 7, modularity Q = 0.6395 (larger than 0.3) and mean silhouette = 0.8479 (larger than 0.5), which implies the validity and reliability is suitable [45,46]. In Cluster #0, child-friendly city, scholars proposed suggestions for building a CFC by studying children’s activities in the built environment (Figure 6 and Figure 7). Shenja pointed out that the recent rise of “smart cities” has ignored the social needs and experiences of children in the city and that we need to reexamine the interaction between child-friendly and smart cities [47]. Other research has shown that a sense of safety and having friends to play with are key factors determining children’s outdoor play, and whether the environment can provide some degree of challenge for the children is also a very important factor [48]. Samira’s research showed that locally designed formal open spaces were more popular among children. However, there are differences in the types of open spaces that children prefer based on regional differences [49]. GIS was used to analyze and measure children’s access to urban services [50]. The appearance of clusters of tuberculosis (#2) and asthma (#4) is due to the mention in the relevant medical research literature that, in the treatment of these diseases, child-friendly medications should be developed to reduce the side effects of drugs in children [51].

In cluster #3, inclusive design, the top three keywords were independent mobility, public health, and travel. There is a strong correlation between the physical environment and independent mobility [52]. Studies in England [53], Australia [54], the United States [55], and Canada [56] have shown that children’s independent mobility and active commuting have declined significantly in recent decades, particularly in downtown areas [57]. Children’s independent mobility is influenced by various factors including single-parent families, socioeconomic status, and mismatched work and school schedules [58]. In addition, the trustworthiness of neighbors and strangers can affect children’s active school travel (AST) [38]. The residential environment also affects children’s travel modes, especially for children living in downtown areas, where their independent mobility has decreased significantly due to parental fears and children’s concerns about traffic and strangers [59]. There were significant differences in the travel modes and related independent mobility for children in public and private high-rise residential buildings [60]. Simultaneously, children’s fear of others and the environment can also limit their independent mobility, causing them to miss opportunities for independent action, such as when visual markers of the alcohol, pornography, or the sex industry are present in space, which can have a negative impact on their health [41]. Although parents are concerned about their children’s safety, allowing them to act independently when they have sufficient trust can help them develop the skills that they need in other areas of life [57].

In cluster #9, built environment, scholars discussed the built environment of CFCs from various aspects, such as framework construction and evaluation criteria. The CFC concept of CFCs involves a wide range of factors. Chatterjee suggests that the perspective of environmental behavior can be adopted. CFCs are composed of multiple places, and a framework for building CFC places was proposed from the perspective of friendship [61]. In order to better reflect the wishes of children in design, Vidal and other scholars proposed the concept of “child-friendly green facilities” from the perspective of children’s participation in order to help children grow better in the urban environment [62]. Furthermore, the distribution of land use and street design patterns has a significant impact on children’s independent mobility. The existence of facilities such as trails, playgrounds, and sports fields is positively correlated with the use of public space [63]. Additionally, the child friendliness of a built environmental can also be measured from various aspects, such as children’s possibilities for independent mobility, their opportunities to actualize environmental affordances, and the co-variation of the actualized affordances [64,65].

From Figure 8 and Figure 9 we can see that, in Figure 8, modularity Q = 0.7928 (larger than 0.3) and mean silhouette = 0.9301 (larger than 0.5), which shows the validity and reliability of the clustering procedure. In Figure 9, modularity Q = 0.7928 (larger than 0.3) and mean silhouette = 0.9301 (larger than 0.5); this suggests that the suitability of validity and reliability is good [45,46].

In the first major cluster, cluster #0, child-friendly, includes 40 keywords, among which the top five are child-friendly, urban renewal, urban space, community development, and public participation. This cluster involves various aspects such as community planning [66], healthy communities [67,68,69], play spaces [70,71], travel routes [72], streets [73], and foreign case studies [74,75].

In cluster #4, open space and cluster #6, public space, the terms “Residential areas”, “Public Transportation”, and “Case Study” are included (Figure 9). In this search, “Residential areas” appeared as a keyword in 14 articles and focused on safe traveling routes [72,76] and spatial design studies [77]. Zeng’s study showed that the accessibility and continuity of open older residential areas are better, but vehicles are more intrusive to children and children’s traveling challenges include the interference of motorized vehicles and the low quality of the environment of the internal roads in the residential areas [72]. Ye suggests that public space in residential areas should focus on five aspects: the layout of activity areas, the relationship between roads and activity sites, safety planning and design principles, the selection of small facilities, and the comfort of outdoor activity spaces [77]. As for “Public Transportation”, Chinese scholars pay more attention to street design. Deng proposes that child-friendly streets should be active, safe, comfortable, and participatory through researching street design concepts both in China and abroad [78]. In the case study literature, one part of the literature analyzes foreign cases to provide experience for the construction of CFCs in China [76,79], whereas another part analyzes the actual construction cases in China to summarize the practical experience and provide references for the development of related types of practice in the later stages [71,72,73].

In cluster #3, “child participation”, the keywords “community gardens”, “family involvement”, and “micro-update” are included, which may be related to the second round of urban renewal in China that has occurred in recent years (Figure 10). Currently, China is experiencing the transformation of urban society, and how to achieve the transformation of urban governance and spatial quality prompted from the perspective of community building and public participation is the current research hotspot [80]. As the basic constituent unit of the city, the community is also the central place for children to live, and community building has become an essential part of CFCs and the main practice path [15]. Xu’s study shows that creating additional activities for children helps to improve the neighborhood relationship of individual families and that the increase in the degree of community interaction helps to improve the depth of individual participation in self-governance units and the level of community self-governance [81]. China’s current space micro-renewal activities are gradually being carried out and promoted, laying a foundation for promoting community garden activities [82]. Some researchers believe that community gardens attract children’s attention and participation by offering various nature- and community-garden-related activities. Through children’s participation, they are able to assert themselves as important stakeholders in the urban setting, thus participating in the community building process by linking families [83]. In 2016, Shanghai received support from the grassroots government to gradually promote the construction of community gardens throughout the city, making it one of the first cities in China to promote community gardens [84]. This may be why Shanghai appears in the top five keyword rankings.

Cluster #9 is “Community Renewal”. Recently, in the process of community regeneration in China, the construction of CFCs has been recognized as an effective way to achieve community integration and community planning [84,85] (Figure 9). Zhou (2021) proposed that the child friendliness of community public spaces has a significant positive impact on residents’ participation, indicating that improving the child friendliness of community public spaces can directly or indirectly promote residents’ participation in community governance by promoting social interactions among residents [86].

3.5. Burst Keywords

Burst keywords can identify and track research frontiers, providing researchers with the latest evolutionary trends in their disciplines and predicting the development of research areas. CiteSpace can detect the emergence of a new vocabulary and present the changing context of keywords through a temporal zone view [87].

In the WOS, burst terms appeared in 2002 (Figure 10) (before the appearance of “CFC” in 2016) that focused on child protection, safety, and health. Subsequently, the research direction gradually shifted to independent mobility, quantitative research, walking, and physical activity. Before 2017, research in China related to CFCs mainly focused on topics such as spatial design and children’s health. After research related to CFCs began to emerge in 2017, studies shifted towards practical applications such as optimizing strategies, community participation, and policy design. In China, there has been a dynamic shift from a micro-level focus to a combination of micro- and macro-level research.

In 2017, China’s emphasis on child friendliness underwent a transformation, shifting from a design-oriented concern for children and toddlers to a policy level of concern (optimizing strategies and participation). This broader perspective considers child-friendly cities from a macroscopic level that focuses on government policy, regional planning, and so on. At the same time, the city of Changsha emerged as a prominent keyword in 2017, likely due to its goal to create a “child-friendly city” set forth as early as 2015 and incorporated into the “Changsha 2050 Vision and Development Strategic Plan [88]”. As one of the earliest cities to initiate CFC construction, the Changsha Municipal Party Committee and Government proposed the goal of CFC construction as a city development target at “The 13th Party Congress of Changsha City” in 2016 [88,89].

From a holistic perspective, the focus of strategies has shifted from “design strategies” to “optimization strategies”, indicating that China’s urbanization construction has shifted from incremental to stock growth. Building higher-quality and more livable cities is the direction of China’s future urban development.

According to this figure, research on CFCs in the WOS database has gradually shifted from early studies related to the right to life/health (care, sexual abuse, and protection) to the right to the development of children (walking and independent mobility). This includes research starting with children’s experiences, understanding the dangers and challenges faced by children in their daily lives, and actualizing children’s participation rights. From an adult perspective, the understanding and improving of children’s life development have progressed to listening to the children’s own descriptions and understanding their needs from the perspective of the children themselves.

By comparison, relevant research on child-friendly cities in China has undergone a transition from design to planning, which is a shift from a “micro” to a “micro + macro” perspective. This means it started from single, specialized, technical pieces of research and gradually expanded to professional research integrated with relevant national policies, which also reflects the characteristic of close integration between urban spatial planning and government policies in China. Foreign research has transitioned from an adult narrative perspective to a child narrative perspective.

4. Discussion

This study offers a comprehensive and in-depth scientometric analysis of the current academic literature on CFCs. We draw some concluding remarks by targeting the aforementioned research goals.

4.1. Progress of CFC Construction and Research Topics Are Related to the Level of Economic Development of the City

A significant portion of the literature originates from Western countries. In high-income countries, CFCs focus on promoting children’s freedom and improving the existing material quality of the environment. In low-income countries, the primary emphasis remains on addressing urgent issues such as mortality and health [90]. In China, this trend is reflected in the number of publications from different regions, with a higher concentration of relevant research in the southeastern coastal areas and first-tier cities. This suggests a potential correlation between CFC urban development and the urbanization process in China, possibly representing a trend that emerges after a certain level of urbanization has been reached.

4.2. The Significant Role of Multi-Party Cooperation in Policy Implementation and Child Participation

Although keywords related to policies, such as “policy” or “governance”, appear relatively infrequently in various keyword analyses, our examination of the relevant literature has revealed that the significance of governmental and related policies cannot be underestimated. The development of CFCs is usually intertwined with urban development planning, underscoring the essential nature of institutionalizing these systems to attain the overarching objective of safeguarding children’s rights [23]. Whitzman’s research indicates that multi-level and multi-sector integration is essential for institutionalizing child-friendly policies [91]. Besides government action, the active involvement of other societal forces is also crucial, such as academic institutions that can assist in researching child participation [2,92]. Many policies cannot be effectively implemented without active involvement from multiple stakeholders [93]. At present, there is an insufficient amount of research on how governments advance CFCs, especially concerning the policy cycle and the interaction between various levels of governance, highlighting a research gap [23]. In China, some studies have focused on how the government executes these initiatives. Scholars such as Zong propose constructing a child-friendly educational complexes based on “moral integrity”, “child-friendly”, and “content symbiosis” [37]. Deng, using the example of Changsha city, suggests a strategic approach consisting of “CFC strategic planning—CFC construction guidelines—CFC implementation projects”. This approach involves integrating the concept of a CFC into urban development principles, implementing on-site projects such as CFC schools, campuses, and parks, and refining and promoting the model through project formulation and implementation, continually revising and improving the construction guidelines based on feedback [94]. Multifaceted assistance not only plays a crucial role in policy implementation but also has an enduring impact on promoting child participation. In several CNKI articles, Chinese scholars have mentioned the significant role of multi-party cooperation in facilitating child participation. Liu and other scholars have found that involving children in co-creating community gardens and jointly transforming community public spaces can promote child participation. Collaboration with other societal forces is essential in this process [83,84].

4.3. Different Focus in Environmental Research

The articles from the two databases covered in this study approach the relationship between the physical environment and children from different perspectives. However, there are several differences in the research focus:

In CNKI, the primary focus is on the following two aspects: First, how to plan and design child-friendly spaces, reflecting the attention and implementation of child-friendly concepts at the planning intervention level. Second, starting from specific spaces such as “play spaces” and “streets”, there is an emphasis on detailed urban design research, highlighting the creation of spaces to meet children’s activity needs and developing methodological strategies.

In WOS, the emphasis is on the following two points: Firstly, the papers explore the direct impact of the quality of the environment surrounding children. Secondly, children’s possibilities for interacting with urban spaces, with a focus on children’s mobility and accessibility to spaces [23].

Compared with foreign countries, current research on children’s independent mobility in China focuses on influencing factors and planning countermeasures. There is still much to be researched on children’s independent mobility and accessibility as part of social equity.

4.4. Diversifying Avenues for Child Participation

As one of the four basic rights stipulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child [95], child participation has been discussed and researched in China and abroad. Child participation is not only beneficial to children’s development but is also helpful for government policymaking [96,97]. Child participation has been widely studied in China as a new approach to community planning [66,98]. Despite the benefits of children’s participation and their ability to participate, there are still many challenges in the participation process. One of the biggest problems is the lack of skills and confidence to participate [42]. Scholars have proposed a “play-based approach” to participation, whereby children learn about and complete tasks playfully [99,100,101]. However, with the development of smart cities, there will be new challenges to how children can better participate in urban planning [47]

4.5. Proposed Conceptual Model

To enhance the better development of CFCs, we have introduced a dynamic conceptual model called the “PAF” structural diagram to illustrate the structural relationship among various dimensions of CFCs. As depicted in the Figure 11, the entire development process encompasses three main phases: “Policy–Act–Feedback”. During the “Policy” phase, the primary focus is on the top-level government (national government) issuing policies and strategic guidelines related to CFC development. In the “Act” phase, local governments primarily formulate specific policies for CFC development based on local circumstances and guidance from higher authorities. In this practical process, children, families, schools, and various social stakeholders collaborate to establish multi-participant support systems. The “Feedback” component of the third phase involves reflection and summarization of the “Act” phase. It can be confirmed through a series of evaluation systems to assess the current implementation status, providing a basis for future policy adjustments. Real estate companies can also derive market preferences from feedback on the sales of related residential products, thereby modifying the direction of future residential product designs. Trends in real estate companies’ residential product designs will also serve as a basis for the formulation of future national housing-related policies.

5. Conclusions

This research employs bibliometrics to investigate the trends and focal points of CFC research in the CNKI and WOS databases, offering research insights for the future. To this end, we drew some enlightening conclusions by targeting the previously mentioned research goals.

First, in both the CNKI and WOS databases, the number of articles related to CFCs is on the rise. Based on the distribution of publishing institutions and the volume of publications, it implies a correlation between the progress of CFC construction and research topics and the level of economic development in the city.

Second, in the keyword analysis, terms such as “Built Environment”, “Public Space”, “Participation”, and “Design Strategy”, which are related to the environment, participation rights, and policymaking, are currently the main focus in both databases. However, in the research on children and the environment, there is a disparity in research emphasis between the two. Chinese CFC research is undergoing a transformation, shifting from a design-oriented concern for children and toddlers to a policy-level concern. Additionally, in the field of policy implementation and child participation, in both databases, future attention will revolve around how to facilitate multi-party cooperation and enhance children’s involvement in urban planning. We believe that the following areas will be the focus of future research: (1) Attention should be paid to policy and strategy research. At the policy level, it is necessary to ensure a child-friendly social environment in cities and strengthen the guiding role of laws and policies related to children’s rights and interests in urban construction. (2) Combine professional and technical research, conduct multidisciplinary research in various fields, and provide multi-perspective exploration for CFC spatial planning and design.

Finally, given the current trends in research on child participation and multi-party cooperation, we have introduced a dynamic conceptual model named the “PAF” to illustrate the structural relationship among various dimensions of CFC. We believe that multi-party collaboration and participation support systems will be beneficial for children’s involvement and the development of CFCs.

Despite its contributions, we believe that the study has certain limitations: (1) Since we only utilized the CNKI and WOS databases as the sole sources for the literature, our results are not fully comprehensive. In future studies, expanding the data sources to include platforms such as Wanfang, Scopus, and other databases could enable a more comprehensive comparison between Chinese and international research. Combining this with other databases and including more non-English publications could provide a more complete dataset and broader insight. (2) There were other terms related to CFCs such as “children’s independent mobility” that were not included, resulting in a deficiency in the analysis. (3) Some articles related to pediatric medicine were also included in the analysis database, which, to some extent, affected the analysis results in the search results. Future studies could make more precise distinctions in terms of the conceptual boundaries as more studies become available. (4) The language structures and expressions between Chinese and English are significantly different. In order to obtain the best results in different language databases, partially inconsistent keywords or phrases were used to cover the relevant literature. This has also resulted in the keywords input into the two databases not being entirely consistent, leading to incomplete analysis.

We believe that this paper will serve as a valuable point of reference, enabling both researchers and practitioners to gain insights into the advancements in CFC research. The research framework presented in this study offers guidance for evaluating the knowledge foundations in different research fields. For further research, it is worth exploring alternative analysis methods to expand this investigation and validate the findings.