How far do children travel from their homes? Exploring children's activity spaces in their neighborhood

Villanueva, Karen; Giles-Corti, Billie; Bulsara, Max; McCormack, Gavin R.; Timperio, Anna; Middleton, Nick; Beesley, Bridget; Trapp, Gina

doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2011.09.019

Cited by 138 publications

(115 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…It is likely that having destinations, such as parks, en route to and from school provides children with safe places to stop and play as well as cutthroughs away from the main roads thus reducing their exposure to traffic. 13,17,40 Future studies should explore the multiple built environment influences on children's independent mobility when more than 1 destination is visited in a single trip.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of the Social and Physical Environment on Children’s Independent Mobility to Neighborhood Destinations

Christian¹,

Klinker²,

Villanueva³

et al. 2015

Journal of Physical Activity and Health

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Background:Relationships between context-specific measures of the physical and social environment and children’s independent mobility to neighborhood destination types were examined.Methods:Parents in RESIDE’s fourth survey reported whether their child (8–15 years; n = 181) was allowed to travel without an adult to school, friend’s house, park and local shop. Objective physical environment measures were matched to each of these destinations. Social environment measures included neighborhood perceptions and items specific to local independent mobility.Results:Independent mobility to local destinations ranged from 30% to 48%. Independent mobility to a local park was less likely as the distance to the closest park (small and large size) increased and less likely with additional school grounds (P < .05). Independent mobility to school was less likely as the distance to the closest large park increased and if the neighborhood was perceived as unsafe (P < .05). Independent mobility to a park or shops decreased if parenting social norms were unsupportive of children’s local independent movement (P < .05).Conclusions:Independent mobility appears dependent upon the specific destination being visited and the impact of neighborhood features varies according to the destination examined. Findings highlight the importance of access to different types and sizes of urban green space for children’s independent mobility to parks.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of the Social and Physical Environment on Children’s Independent Mobility to Neighborhood Destinations

Christian¹,

Klinker²,

Villanueva³

et al. 2015

Journal of Physical Activity and Health

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…The concept of an 'activity space' is another way of examining exposure to neighbourhood attributes that was not used in the studies included in this review. An activity space is a representation of the actual area in which an individual roams or travels and may have limited overlap with arbitrary boundaries used to define 'neighbourhoods' [65]. Activity spaces can be generated using Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and may provide a more accurate reflection of exposure to environmental features [66]; however, causal inference with behaviour may be impacted by selective daily activity bias whereby access to a specific facility or resource is determined from locations specifically visited to use the resource [67].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Playability: Built and Social Environment Features That Promote Physical Activity Within Children

2015

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The role of neighbourhood built and social environments in shaping children's physical activity has received increasing interest over the past 10 years. We reviewed recent evidence published between 2011 and 2014. Most of the recent evidence continues to be cross-sectional. Few macro-level neighbourhood attributes were consistently associated with physical activity in the expected direction. The strongest evidence for associations between neighbourhood attributes and physical activity with was for the transportation environment, particularly in relation to proximity to school and transport-related physical activity. There was intermediate evidence that neighbourhood walking/cycling infrastructure and pedestrian safety structures are associated with transport-related PA. Recent evidence on associations between the neighbourhood built and social environment and children's PA is modest. Stronger study designs and greater attention to conceptual-matching and specificity of measures are critical to advance the evidence base.

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“…Therefore, individual factors are not very useful in urban-design practices, which focus especially on total environment. In addition to "residential density," other environmental variables recognized in studies are, for example, network connectivity Frank, Andresen, and Schmid 2004;Frank et al 2007Frank et al , 2008Broberg, Salminen, and Kyttä 2013;Villanueva et al 2012Villanueva et al , 2013, density of bus stops (Carr, Dunsiger, and Marcus 2010;Broberg, Salminen, and Kyttä 2013) or land cover of single-family housing (De Vries et al 2010;Broberg, Salminen, and Kyttä 2013). All of these factors have led to more or less diverging effects in different studies conducted in varying countries and cities, among different age and gender groups.…”

Section: Children and Youth Transport In Different Urban Morphologicamentioning

confidence: 99%

Children and youth transport in different urban morphological types

Sarjala

Broberg

Hynynen

2015

JTLU

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As demonstrated in many earlier studies, the qualities of physical environment have great impacts on physical activity (PA) behavior. However, studying individual built-environment variables often produces contradictory effects between studies. To overcome this, we composed multivariate environment types using principal component analysis that takes notice of the inter-correlations between physical-environment variables. To get a realistic view of the places children and adolescents visit in their daily life, we used mapping methodology in which children themselves defined their important places. Based on 16 built-environment variables, six built-environment types were composed around these places.We found that walking and cycling were most prominent in residential environments and least common in mixed-use business districts. Areas with big commercial buildings as well as green environments had the highest proportions of car use. Most places, in general, were visited with friends, but most typically areas with big commercial buildings and mixed-use business districts were reached in the company of friends. Relatively many places were visited alone in residential areas.

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How far do children travel from their homes? Exploring children's activity spaces in their neighborhood

Cited by 138 publications

References 63 publications

The Effect of the Social and Physical Environment on Children’s Independent Mobility to Neighborhood Destinations

The Effect of the Social and Physical Environment on Children’s Independent Mobility to Neighborhood Destinations

Playability: Built and Social Environment Features That Promote Physical Activity Within Children

Children and youth transport in different urban morphological types

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