Noise Annoyance As Reported by 8- to 14-Year-Old Children

Abstract

Relationships between transportation noise and the level of annoyance attributed to a certain noise source are well established in adults. Little is known about the noise annoyance in children. The authors assessed the reported annoyance due to different noise sources of 8- to 14-year-old children in a representative population and compared the results with existing data on adults. The primary focus was on road traffic noise because of its pervasiveness. From all over Germany, 1,048 children were randomly selected. They completed a questionnaire regarding living conditions, including noise annoyance from different noise sources such as road traffic noise. The percentage of children’s homes located on busy roads was 16.5%, and approximately half of the children (47.7%) had their bedroom facing the street. Among the 8- to 10-year-olds, 7.3% were annoyed by road traffic noise during daytime (“yes” on a dichotomous annoyance scale). Among the 11- to 14-year-olds, 16.4% were at least “slightly” annoyed by road traffic noise during daytime (sum of the upper four categories of a 5-point annoyance scale). Compared with regularly reported representative data on adults, the relative frequency of children annoyed by road traffic noise at home was considerably lower.