Measures of outdoor play and independent mobility in children and youth: A methodological review

Bates, Bree; Stone, Michelle

doi:10.1016/j.jsams.2014.07.006

Cited by 54 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Time and range may be insufficient indicators for CIM or simply rarely used at this stage. Using GPS as an objective measure of CIM could provide a more comprehensive understanding of CIM time and CIM range as indicator of CIM [ 76 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social and physical environmental correlates of independent mobility in children: a systematic review taking sex/gender differences into account

2018

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Background Children’s independent mobility (CIM) is an important contributor to physical activity and health in children. However, in the last 20 years CIM has significantly decreased. To develop effective intervention programs to promote CIM, the impact of the environment on CIM must be identified. This review seeks to provide an overview of sex/gender-specific socio-ecological correlates of CIM.MethodsA systematic literature search of five databases (PubMed, PsycInfo, Scopus, Medline, Web of Science) was conducted with a priori defined eligibility criteria and identified 1838 potential articles published between January 1990 and November 2017. Two independent reviewers screened the literature and identified and rated methodological quality of the studies. Related factors of CIM were summarized separately for CIM license (parental permission to travel independently) and CIM destination (destinations to which a child travels independently), and separately for boys and girls using a semi-quantitative method.ResultsTwenty-seven peer-reviewed journal articles were identified which examined the relationship between the social and physical environment and CIM. Only seven studies reported results divided by sex/gender. Most associations between the environment and CIM were found in the expected direction (positive or negative) or not associated at all. The social environment seemed to be more influential for ensuring CIM than the physical environment. Neighborhood safety, fear of crime and stranger, parental support, and perception of traffic were important social environmental factors influencing CIM, while car ownership, distance, and neighborhood design were relevant physical environmental attributes. Few studies examined sex/gender-related environmental correlates of independent mobility, and those findings were inconsistent.ConclusionThe findings of this systematic review serve as suggestions for intervention programs to increase CIM and to identify future directions in research. To establish a robust comprehension of the impact of the social and physical environment on CIM, further sex/gender-sensitive studies using comparable measurements for CIM and environmental correlates are needed.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12942-018-0145-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social and physical environmental correlates of independent mobility in children: a systematic review taking sex/gender differences into account

2018

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“…Future studies should use Global Position Systems (GPS) to objectively measure destinations children visit along with a self-report measure (SMS or an app) to determine if the travel has been unaccompanied by adults. 57,58 While this study appears to be among the first studies to empirically investigate the physical (and social) environment factors associated with children's independent mobility to a friend's house and local shop, no objectively measured physical environment variables in the final models were significantly associated with independent mobility to these destinations. This may be due to a lack of a context-specific measure for friend's house (eg, distance to closest friend's house) and the sample size.…”

Section: Study Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 92%

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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“…Adolescents’ IM is commonly assessed by means of a questionnaire [ 41 ]. In the current study, we asked adolescents about the average time they spent travelling without accompaniment per trip in a usual week, separately for (i) walking, (ii) cycling, and (iii) using public transport in order to assess adolescents’ IM.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, Carver et al reported that children’s and adolescents’ perceptions of safety were higher than the parental perception, and were more strongly related to active commuting in the neighborhood [ 39 ] and Schoeppe et al related higher rates of IM when parents had a higher educational level and reported higher social connection [ 40 ]. Systematic reviews about IM assessed the methodological approach [ 41 ] or its relation to physical activity and weight status [ 15 ]. To the best of our knowledge, the relation between parents’ and adolescents’ perception of traffic- and crime-related safety and their association with IM has not been studied before.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parents’ and adolescents’ perception of traffic- and crime-related safety as correlates of independent mobility among Belgian adolescents

et al. 2018

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The independent mobility (IM), defined as the freedom of young people to travel without adult supervision, has been related to the physical activity time, the acquisition of personal autonomy, to less intense fear of crime, and to a stronger feeling of being part of their community and other health and social benefits. The aims of this study were to compare parents’ and adolescents’ traffic- and crime-related safety perceptions of their neighborhood and to analyze the associations of these perceptions with adolescents’ IM. A total of 291 adolescents and their parents completed the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS) questionnaire. Multilevel (two-level models: individual level—neighborhood level) regression analyses were conducted to examine whether the environmental perceptions differed between parents and adolescents and the association between the parental and adolescents’ perception to the IM and the active independent mobility (AIM). Parents reported a more negative perception of traffic (except for amount and speed) and crime-related safety. Adolescents’ environmental perceptions were not associated with their IM but parental perceptions of traffic- and crime-related safety were associated with IM and with active IM, although not all associations were in the expected direction. Future urban policy efforts should address environments where parents perceive sufficient levels of safety to increase the levels of IM in adolescents.

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Measures of outdoor play and independent mobility in children and youth: A methodological review

Cited by 54 publications

References 58 publications

Social and physical environmental correlates of independent mobility in children: a systematic review taking sex/gender differences into account

Social and physical environmental correlates of independent mobility in children: a systematic review taking sex/gender differences into account

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

Parents’ and adolescents’ perception of traffic- and crime-related safety as correlates of independent mobility among Belgian adolescents

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