Research on the Furniture Design Criteria for Children’s Psychological Development in Home Environment

Abstract

The growth of birth rate and consumption upgrading have brought opportunities to China’s children’s furniture industry. However, Chinese children furniture design still remains at the level of meeting children’s physiological needs, mainly focusing on the size, safety and health issues, and neglecting their needs of psychological development. This paper aims to examine the correlations between parenting styles and children’s furniture preferences in regard to children’s psychological development and mental health by studying a group of middle and high income families in Shanghai. The research used the ethnographic method to collect data of family daily life, hypothesis was formed following an in-depth analysis and verified through a questionnaire survey. The psychological factors of children’s furniture design were extracted. Based on such psychological factors and the different types of family environment extracted, this paper proposes a differentiation model to understand children’s furniture design as a medium favoring the development of children’s psychological health.