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

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe study reports the degree of children's independent mobility (CIM) in Finland for over two decades, from the beginning of the 1990s up to 2011. The first part of the research examined the differences of CIM in five different settlements in 2011: inner city, suburban, large town, small town, and rural village. A cross-sectional survey was used on a total of 821 7-to 15-year-old children in various settlements in different parts of Finland. Independent mobility was operationalized both as mobility licenses, meaning parental permits to perform certain activities independently, and as actual mobility, the proportion of active and independent school travel and independent weekend activities. In the second part of the study, we used the same measures to compare the independent mobility of Finnish children in the 1990s and 2010s. The second sample consisted of a total of 306 8-to 10-year-old children and their parents who participated in the CIM study in 1993-94 or in 2011. The major finding of the study was that in Finland children's independent mobility had decreased significantly during a span of 20 years, even more noticeably in the small town and rural village settings than in the inner city settlements. Finnish children, nevertheless, still enjoy a very high degree of independent mobility when compared with the children from the 16 countries involved in the large international comparative study for which the current research was conducted. In the discussion, we give some possible factors that can provide some understanding of and explanation to these trends.

Children and youth transport in different urban morphological types

“…Children enjoying higher levels of independence, show higher levels of objectively measured physical activity, compared to those with more restricted mobility patterns (see, e.g., Stone et al 2014;Schoeppe et al 2014;Page et al 2009). As stated by Kyttä et al (2014), Finnish children and young people are also, in terms of international comparisons, very independent in their mobility. This study also supports this finding, as parents were accompanying only 7 percent of the trips.…”

“…This corresponds to our findings, except for centralcity environments often dominated by mixed-use business districts, which were more often visited by public transportation in our study. As there is more infrastructure for public transportation per capita in European cities compared to North American cities (van de Coevering and Schwanen 2006), we can speculate that perhaps public transportation in Finland is somewhat better in international comparison, and probably Finnish children are allowed to use public transport more independently (Kyttä et al 2014), which makes it a more usual transport mode for children in Finland. However, the different research setting more likely explains this result.…”

An Appraissal of Independent Mobility towards Advancing Child-friendly Military Barrack Community Milieu in Developing Countries

“…Nevertheless, the study on children's mobility was first analyzed in the 1990s by measuring the territorial range which implies the geographical distance from children's home to places where they have freedom to play and socialize (Kyttä et al, 2015). The concept of independent mobility was later operationalized as a license to move around freely without adult's accompaniment in the environment.…”

“…The concept of independent mobility was later operationalized as a license to move around freely without adult's accompaniment in the environment. Meanwhile, the degree of a mobility license started with rules laid by parents concerning children's permission to cross roads or to ride a bicycle freely (Kyttä et al, 2015). It was also complemented later by studies on the degree of licenses to visit friends and shopping malls on their own.…”

Turn taking behavior in dual earner households with children: a focus on escorting routines

“…School start times and departure times of work commutes tend to be correlated (e.g., Fox et al 2015;Deka 2017;Mehdizadeh et al 2016); Ehteshamrad et al 2017a, b) unless fixed work schedules preclude such synchronization. This correlation tends to be weaker when children become older and therefore more independent, and when the built environment, distance to school and general safety in the area are inducive to children traveling independently without any escort (e.g., Fyhri et al 2011;Giles-Corti et al 2011;Elias and Katoshevski-Cavari 2014;Mitra and Buliung 2014;Lin and Chang 2010;Pojani and Boussauw 2014;Lopes et al 2014;Lam and Loo 2014;Kyttä et al 2015). Meanwhile, the spatial synchronization, such as location of parents' work place and school, also affect parent's escorting activity (e.g., He 2013; He and Giuliano 2017;Ermagun and Levinson 2016).…”