2025/10/09 by Lidan Hou, Hazel Easthope, Marion Burgess
Health Professions · Engineering · Neuroscience · #Noise Effects and Management #Acoustic Wave Phenomena Research #Hearing Loss and Rehabilitation
paper · doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2025.113837
• A systematic review of studies measuring and assessing child noise in apartments. • Each method has strengths and limitations; mixed methods are suggested. • Studies focused more on floor impact noise from children than on airborne noise. • Standard impact sound sources are limited in reproducing real child-related noises. • An evaluation framework with acoustic, individual, and social factors is needed. With the growing popularity of apartment living, noise from neighbors, particularly from children’s activities, has become an important challenge, affecting residents’ well-being and raising questions about balancing children’s right to play with residents’ right to acoustic comfort. To effectively manage child-related noise in apartments, accurate capture and assessment are important. This article presents the first systematic review of measurement and assessment methods for child-related noise in apartment settings, analyzing 21 empirical studies published between 2000 and 2025. It identifies two measurement methods (field measurement and sound stimuli) and six assessment methods (social surveys: questionnaire, interview, content analysis; psychoacoustic experiments: subjective evaluation experiment, choice reaction task, psychophysiological experiment). Experimental methods provide greater controllability, while in-situ and survey-based methods better reflect real-life experiences. Although some studies integrate questionnaires and experiments, the combined use of unstructured qualitative and quantitative methods in combination remains limited. In addition, existing studies have mainly focused on structure-borne impact noise from children, with airborne noise receiving less attention. Standard impact sound sources are limited in reproducing real child-related noise. Notably, child-related noise is both an acoustic and social issue, but the influence of social context on its evaluation and management remains underexplored. This review highlights the importance of a comprehensive database of structure- and airborne sounds and a multidimensional evaluation framework incorporating acoustic, individual, and social factors. These are important not only to ensure scientific rigor and fairness in child-related noise assessment, but also to create more inclusive and child-friendly apartment environments.