Perceptions about the local neighborhood and walking and cycling among children.

By A. Timperio, D. Crawford, A. Telford, J. Salmon. Preventive Medicine, 2004

825 citations recorded by the source corpus.

BACKGROUND This study examined associations between perceptions of the local neighborhood and walking and cycling among children. METHODS Children aged 5-6 years (n=291) and 10-12 years (n=919) were recruited from 19 Australian primary schools. Parents reported their child's usual walking or cycling to local destinations and their perceptions of their neighborhood. Ten- to twelve-year-olds were asked their perceptions of traffic, strangers, road safety and sporting venues, and their perceptions of their parent's views on these issues. RESULTS Five- to six-year-old boys whose parents believed there was heavy traffic in their area were 2.8 times more likely (95%CI=1.1-6.8), and 5- to 6-year-old girls whose parents owned more than one car were 70% less likely (95%CI=0.1-0.8), and whose parents believed that public transport was limited in their area were 60% less likely (95%CI=0.2-0.9) than other children to walk or cycle at least three times per week. Parental belief that there were no lights or crossings was associated with walking or cycling among 10- to 12-year-old boys (OR=0.4, 95%CI=0.2-0.7). Among older girls, parent's belief that their child needed to cross several roads to reach play areas (OR=0.4, 95%CI=0.2-0.8) and that there is limited public transport in their area (OR=0.7, 95%CI=0.4-0.97), and child's belief that there were no parks or sports grounds near home (OR=0.5, 95%CI=0.3-0.8) were associated with a lower likelihood of walking or cycling. CONCLUSION Perceptions of the local neighborhood may influence children's physical activity.

Subfields: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, Transportation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/95f91fdf3f0572e8fe235e44c49ea15c1961b457

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In Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

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Citations in the corpus

Walking to school: Community design and child and parent barriers (2011, background): “Furthermore, only two of the 24 articles included both child and parent perceptions, but neither compared child and parent perceptions directly (Timperio et al., 2006; Timperio et al., 2004).”
On children's independent mobility: the interplay of demographic, environmental, and psychosocial factors (2012, background): “2004 ), and New Zealand (Tranter and Pawson 2001 ) – confirmed that children have less and less freedom of movement.”
Where Do Children Travel to and What Local Opportunities Are Available? The Relationship Between Neighborhood Destinations and Children’s Independent Mobility (2013, background): “…(Alton et al., 2007), child and parent-reported presence of neighborhood destinations such as parks, play areas, sporting, or recreation venues are generally positively associated with children’s active transport (Carver et al., 2005; Evenson et al., 2006; Kerr et al., 2007; Timperio et al., 2004).”
Resurrecting free play in young children: looking beyond fitness and fatness to attention, affiliation, and affect. (2005, background): “The streets and yards around young children’s homes can also be socially enriching and cognitively stimulating spaces in which children can play,(56) but traffic is a safety threat to many children outside of their homes.(57) Various traffic calming interventions in residential areas are one promisi”
Does the walkability of neighbourhoods affect children's independent mobility, independent of parental, socio-cultural and individual factors? (2014, background): “Although ecological frameworks exploring children’s AT behaviour have begun to appear in the literature (Timperio et al. 2004; McMillan 2005; Panter, Jones, and van Sluijs 2008), to date few studies have investigated multiple levels of factors influencing IM (Fyhri and Hjorthol 2009; Page et al.”
‘Eyes on where children play’: a retrospective study of active free play (2015, background): “Parental concerns about road safety have been negatively associated with children’s neighborhood walking and cycling (Hillman, Adams, and Whitelegg 1990; Tranter and Pawson 2001; Timperio et al. 2004; Carver et al. 2010).”