Effect of children on the sound environment in fast-food restaurants


While an increasing number of studies are examining the effect of the sound environment in restaurants,this study is the first to examine the effect of children on the sound environment of dining areas. Wemeasured children’s behaviour and the sound pressure level in a dining area and investigated acousticcomfort and sound source to ascertain the influence of the number of children, behaviour, and gendercombinations while playing on the sound environment of a typical fast-food restaurant in Harbin City,China. The results demonstrate that, first, with fewer than four children, the sound pressure level (SPL)increases significantly when the number of children increases (e.g., by 2.8dBA per child). However, whenthe number of children exceeds four, the SPL is almost stabilised. Second, sound sources heard by peoplein the dining area can also be influenced by the number of children; the sound of communication amongchildren increased by 12% and then decreased by 20% as the number of children increased. Finally, thenumber of children affects acoustic comfort by 2.2 (on a 5 point scale) due to the duration of the MaxSPL, and by 1.0 due to the percentage of screaming and communicating. These results demonstrate thatthe sound environment can be improved by changing the number of children and their combinationgroups.