Does the walkability of neighbourhoods affect children's independent mobility, independent of parental, socio-cultural and individual factors?

Abstract

The association between neighbourhood walkability and children's independent mobility using an ecological approach is relatively unexplored. In 2007, 1480 10-12 year-old children (and 1314 parents) attending low and high walkable schools across Perth, Western Australia, completed surveys. Objective built environment, social-cultural and individual-level factors were explored. High neighbourhood walkability predicted girls' independent mobility. However, girls and boys were more likely to be independently mobile if they and their parents were confident that they could travel independently. Providing safe, walkable neighbourhoods-particularly for girls-combined with strategies to improve children's skills to safely navigate their neighbourhood may increase independent mobility.

Exploring the Associations of Walking Behavior with Neighborhood Environments by Different Life Stages: A Cross-Sectional Study in a Smaller Chinese City

“…Globally, a growing number of studies have focused on children and older people, due to the differentiation in their physiology and perception [35,36,[40][41][42][43][44]. We acknowledge that studies of older people and children are crucial for walkability, but this study focuses on the "working age population" (i.e., those aged between 18 and 59) in order to avoid the potential effects of physiological differentiation upon the exposure-outcome relationship.…”

“…This results in many and varied educational amenities (e.g., after-school homework tutoring, and the teaching of special skills, such as dance and drawing), as well as other amenities for children (e.g., selling toys, stationery, special snacks, and sweet drinks) emerging around schools. Considering the features related to children (e.g., safety issues and limited walking territory), these amenities need to be as close to schools as possible [34,43]. Their type and The interviews pointed the way to understanding these recreational amenities (e.g., karaoke bar and cinema) as extremely important for irregular social activities, rather than for basic everyday demands or itinerant individual activities.…”

The last free-range children? Children’s independent mobility in Finland in the 1990s and 2010s

“…The independent and active mobility of children is an outcome of a very complex set of developmental (Ahmadi, 2007;Burgmanis et al, 2014;Rissotto and Tonucci, 2002), familial (Barron, 2014;Jensen et al, 2014), sociocultural (Depeau, 2001;Malone and Rudner, 2011;Valentine, 2004), and environmental characteristics (Alparone and Pacilli, 2012;Mitra and Buliung, 2014;Villanueva et al, 2013), as well as the policy context (Fyhri and Hjorthol, 2009;Rudner, 2012). Individual and family characteristics that are affecting CIM include children's age, maturity and gender (Johansson, 2006), family structure, socioeconomic status, ethnicity (Loebach and Gilliland, 2014;Weir et al, 2006), gender of parent, and parent employment (Valentine, 2004;Witten et al, 2013).…”

The Child of the Common: Governing Children in the Freetown Christiania, Denmark

“…In mainstream Western societies, children are kept under close surveillance and supervision, due to a wish to protect them from dangers in public space (Bordonaro, ; Harden, ; Smith, ; Villanueva and others, ). Earlier research shows that children in intentional communities are subjected to a lesser degree of protection and surveillance.…”