Socio-demographic factors and neighbourhood social cohesion influence adults’ willingness to grant children greater independent mobility: A cross-sectional study

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Hannah M. Badland¹  Amanda L. Rebar²  Stephanie Schoeppe²  Corneel Vandelanotte²  Stephanie Alley²  Mitch J. Duncan³  Susan Williams⁴ 

[1] McCaughey VicHealth Community Wellbeing Unit, The University of Melbourne, 207 Bouverie Street, VIC 3010, Carlton, Australia;Physical Activity Research Group, School of Human, Health and Social Sciences, Central Queensland University, Building 18, Bruce Highway, QLD 4702, Rockhampton, Australia;Priority Research Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Advanced Technology Centre, School of Medicine and Public Health, The University of Newcastle, ATC 315 University Drive, NSW 2308, Callaghan, Australia;School of Medical and Applied Sciences, Central Queensland University, Building 6, Bruce Highway, QLD 4702, Rockhampton, Australia;

关键词: Parent;    Community cohesion;    Unsupervised;    Movement;    Young people;    Survey;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-015-2053-2

 received in 2015-06-09, accepted in 2015-07-14,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIn developed countries, children’s independent mobility levels are low. Built environmental factors and parental safety concerns are well-known to predict the level of independent mobility adults grant to children. In contrast, the influence of adults’ socio-demographic characteristics and neighbourhood social cohesion on children’s independent mobility is largely unexplored. This study investigated the influence of adults’ socio-demographic factors and neighbourhood social cohesion on distances they would permit children for independent travel and outdoor play.MethodsIn 2013, a random sample of 1293 Australian adults (mean age: 56.1 years, 52 % male, 81 % parents) participated in the Queensland Social Survey (QSS) via computer-assisted telephone interview. Socio-demographic factors measured included age, sex, parental status, education and area-level socio-economic disadvantage. Perceived neighbourhood social cohesion was assessed using a standardised scale. Adults reported the distances children aged 8–12 years should be allowed to walk/cycle to places, and play outdoors without adults. Responses were categorised into ‘within sight’, < 0.5 kilometres (km) , 0.5-1 km and >1 km. Ordinal logistic regression was used to assess associations of socio-demographic factors and neighbourhood social cohesion with distances adults would permit for children’s independent travel and outdoor play.ResultsParents and adults with lower education were less likely to permit greater distances for children’s independent travel (OR = 0.57 and OR = 0.59, respectively). Women, parents and adults with lower education were less likely to grant children greater distances for independent outdoor play (OR = 0.61, OR = 0.50 and OR = 0.60, respectively). In contrast, adults with higher perceptions of neighbourhood social cohesion were more likely to permit children greater distances for independent travel (OR = 1.05)and outdoor play (OR = 1.05). Adult age and area-level socio-economic disadvantage were not associated with distances adults would permit for independent travel and outdoor play.ConclusionsWomen, parents (particularly those of younger children), adults with lower education and those who perceived neighbourhood social cohesion as being lower were less willing to let children independently travel further away from home. Interventions to increase children’s independent mobility may be more effective if targeted to these groups. In addition, increasing neighbourhood social cohesion may help increase adults’ willingness to grant children greater independent mobility.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Schoeppe et al. 2015. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.