IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i16p2862-d256514.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Correlates of Children’s Independent Mobility in Canada: A Multi-Site Study

Author

Listed:
  • Negin A. Riazi

    (School of Kinesiology, Faculty of Education, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada)

  • Sébastien Blanchette

    (Département des sciences de l’activité physique, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, QC G8Z 4M3, Canada)

  • François Trudeau

    (Département des sciences de l’activité physique, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, QC G8Z 4M3, Canada)

  • Richard Larouche

    (Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4, Canada)

  • Mark S. Tremblay

    (Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L1, Canada)

  • Guy Faulkner

    (School of Kinesiology, Faculty of Education, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
    Centre for Hip Health and Mobility, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Centre, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9, Canada)

Abstract

Globally, physical inactivity is a concern, and children’s independent mobility (CIM) may be an important target behavior for addressing the physical inactivity crisis. The aim of this study was to examine correlates of CIM (8–12 years old) in the Canadian context to inform future interventions. CIM was measured via parent surveys. Individual, social, and environmental correlates of CIM were examined using a social–ecological framework. 1699 participants’ data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and gender-stratified linear mixed-effects models while controlling for site, area-level socioeconomic status, and type of urbanization. Individual correlates including child grade ( β = 0.612, p < 0.001), language spoken at home ( β = −0.503, p < 0.001), car ownership ( β = −0.374, p < 0.05), and phone ownership ( β = 0.593, p < 0.001) were associated with CIM. For boys, parental gender ( β = −0.387, p < 0.01) was negatively associated with CIM. Parents’ perceptions of safety and environment were significantly associated with CIM. Location (i.e., site) was significantly associated with CIM (ref: Trois-Rivières; Ottawa ( β = −1.188, p < 0.001); Vancouver ( β = −1.216, p < 0.001)). Suburban environments were negatively associated with boys’ independent mobility ( β = −0.536, p < 0.05), while walkability (400 m β = 0.064, p < 0.05; 1600 m β = −0.059, p < 0.05) was significantly associated with girls’ independent mobility only. Future research and interventions should consider targeting “modifiable factors” like children’s and parents’ perceptions of neighborhood safety and environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Negin A. Riazi & Sébastien Blanchette & François Trudeau & Richard Larouche & Mark S. Tremblay & Guy Faulkner, 2019. "Correlates of Children’s Independent Mobility in Canada: A Multi-Site Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-14, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:16:p:2862-:d:256514
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/16/2862/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/16/2862/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sylvia Y. He & Genevieve Giuliano, 2017. "Factors affecting children’s journeys to school: a joint escort-mode choice model," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 199-224, January.
    2. Kyttä, Marketta & Hirvonen, Jukka & Rudner, Julie & Pirjola, Iiris & Laatikainen, Tiina, 2015. "The last free-range children? Children’s independent mobility in Finland in the 1990s and 2010s," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-12.
    3. Fyhri, Aslak & Hjorthol, Randi, 2009. "Children’s independent mobility to school, friends and leisure activities," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 377-384.
    4. Fyhri, Aslak & Hjorthol, Randi & Mackett, Roger L. & Fotel, Trine Nordgaard & Kyttä, Marketta, 2011. "Children's active travel and independent mobility in four countries: Development, social contributing trends and measures," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 703-710, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chelsea A. Pelletier & Katie Cornish & Caroline Sanders, 2021. "Children’s Independent Mobility and Physical Activity during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study with Families," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-12, April.
    2. Elise Desjardins & Zahra Tavakoli & Antonio Páez & Edward Owen Douglas Waygood, 2022. "Children’s Access to Non-School Destinations by Active or Independent Travel: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-18, September.
    3. Longxi Li & Michelle E. Moosbrugger, 2021. "Correlations between Physical Activity Participation and the Environment in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Using Ecological Frameworks," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-21, August.
    4. Helen F. Dodd & Lily FitzGibbon & Brooke E. Watson & Rachel J. Nesbit, 2021. "Children’s Play and Independent Mobility in 2020: Results from the British Children’s Play Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-20, April.
    5. Sharon Levi & Orna Baron-Epel & Riki Tesler & Yossi Harel-Fisch, 2022. "Patterns of Active Travel and Physical Activity among Adolescents in Israel," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-14, October.
    6. Byoung-Suk Kweon & Woo-Hwa Shin & Christopher D. Ellis, 2023. "School Walk Zone: Identifying Environments That Foster Walking and Biking to School," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-13, February.
    7. Janet Loebach & Marcos Sanches & Julia Jaffe & Tara Elton-Marshall, 2021. "Paving the Way for Outdoor Play: Examining Socio-Environmental Barriers to Community-Based Outdoor Play," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-25, March.
    8. Negin A. Riazi & Kelly Wunderlich & Lira Yun & Derek C. Paterson & Guy Faulkner, 2022. "Social-Ecological Correlates of Children’s Independent Mobility: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-15, January.
    9. Yang Zhou & Meng Wang & Siming Lin & Caiyun Qian, 2022. "Relationship between Children’s Independent Activities and the Built Environment of Outdoor Activity Space in Residential Neighborhoods: A Case Study of Nanjing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-24, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bilin Han & Jinhee Kim & Harry Timmermans, 2020. "Turn taking behavior in dual earner households with children: a focus on escorting routines," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 203-222, February.
    2. Isabel Marzi & Anne Kerstin Reimers, 2018. "Children’s Independent Mobility: Current Knowledge, Future Directions, and Public Health Implications," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-15, November.
    3. João De Abreu e Silva, 2018. "The Effects of Land-Use Patterns on Home-Based Tour Complexity and Total Distances Traveled: A Path Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-16, March.
    4. Dias, Charitha & Abdullah, Muhammad & Lovreglio, Ruggiero & Sachchithanantham, Sumana & Rekatheeban, Markkandu & Sathyaprasad, I.M.S., 2022. "Exploring home-to-school trip mode choices in Kandy, Sri Lanka," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    5. Negin A. Riazi & Kelly Wunderlich & Lira Yun & Derek C. Paterson & Guy Faulkner, 2022. "Social-Ecological Correlates of Children’s Independent Mobility: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-15, January.
    6. Scheiner, Joachim, 2016. "School trips in Germany: Gendered escorting practices," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 76-92.
    7. Raktim Mitra & Guy EJ Faulkner & Ron N Buliung & Michelle R Stone, 2014. "Do parental perceptions of the neighbourhood environment influence children’s independent mobility? Evidence from Toronto, Canada," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(16), pages 3401-3419, December.
    8. Janet Loebach & Marcos Sanches & Julia Jaffe & Tara Elton-Marshall, 2021. "Paving the Way for Outdoor Play: Examining Socio-Environmental Barriers to Community-Based Outdoor Play," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-25, March.
    9. Scheiner, Joachim & Huber, Oliver & Lohmüller, Stefan, 2019. "Children's independent travel to and from primary school: Evidence from a suburban town in Germany," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 116-131.
    10. Bjerkan, Kristin Ystmark & Nordtømme, Marianne Elvsaas, 2014. "Car use in the leisure lives of adolescents. Does household structure matter?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 1-7.
    11. Leung, Kevin Y.K. & Astroza, Sebastian & Loo, Becky P.Y. & Bhat, Chandra R., 2019. "An environment-people interactions framework for analysing children's extra-curricular activities and active transport," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 341-358.
    12. Stark, Juliane & Frühwirth, Julia & Aschauer, Florian, 2018. "Exploring independent and active mobility in primary school children in Vienna," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 31-41.
    13. Ermagun, Alireza & Samimi, Amir, 2015. "Promoting active transportation modes in school trips," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 203-211.
    14. Lopes, F. & Cordovil, R. & Neto, C., 2014. "Children’s independent mobility in Portugal: effects of urbanization degree and motorized modes of travel," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 210-219.
    15. Nguyen, Minh Hieu & Pojani, Dorina & Nguyen, Thanh Chuong & Ha, Thanh Tung, 2021. "The impact of Covid-19 on children's active travel to school in Vietnam," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    16. Hao, Jingjing & Zhang, Ling & Ji, Xiaofeng & Tang, Jinjun, 2020. "Modeling and analyzing of family intention for the customized student routes: A case study in China," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 542(C).
    17. Sharmin, Samia & Kamruzzaman, Md., 2017. "Association between the built environment and children's independent mobility: A meta-analytic review," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 104-117.
    18. Lingyi Qiu & Xuemei Zhu, 2021. "Housing and Community Environments vs. Independent Mobility: Roles in Promoting Children’s Independent Travel and Unsupervised Outdoor Play," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-17, February.
    19. Westman, Jessica & Johansson, Maria & Olsson, Lars E. & Mårtensson, Fredrika & Friman, Margareta, 2013. "Children’s affective experience of every-day travel," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 95-102.
    20. Kyttä, Marketta & Hirvonen, Jukka & Rudner, Julie & Pirjola, Iiris & Laatikainen, Tiina, 2015. "The last free-range children? Children’s independent mobility in Finland in the 1990s and 2010s," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-12.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:16:p:2862-:d:256514. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.