Parents' Willingness and Perception of Children's Autonomy as Predictors of Greater Independent Mobility to School

The present study aimed to examine the factors associated with different forms of independent mobility (IM) to school (IM one way and IM both ways) according to their parents' opinions. To do so, several variables were evaluated: how parents assess their children's autonomy, the difficulty...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2019-02, Vol.16 (5), p.732
Main Authors: Ayllón, Ester, Moyano, Nieves, Lozano, Azucena, Cava, María-Jesús
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Autonomy
Child
Children
Children & youth
Cultural resources
Families & family life
Female
Humans
Male
Neighborhoods
Older parents
Outdoors
Parents
Parents & parenting
Parents - psychology
Perceptions
Personal Autonomy
Physical activity
Public spaces
Residence Characteristics - statistics & numerical data
Schools
Self Efficacy
Social factors
Social interactions
Sociodemographics
Studies
Supervision
Transportation - statistics & numerical data
Variables
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Summary:The present study aimed to examine the factors associated with different forms of independent mobility (IM) to school (IM one way and IM both ways) according to their parents' opinions. To do so, several variables were evaluated: how parents assess their children's autonomy, the difficulty they perceive for IM to school, reasons for IM/no IM to school, parents' willingness for IM to school, frequency of children's IM for leisure activities, children having house keys and dangers perceived in the neighborhood. Family-related socio-demographic variables were also assessed: number of children, position occupied by them in the family, family composition, living with both parents or just one, and each parent's nationality, level of education and job status. This study examined the data collected from 1450 parents (mothers and fathers) with children studying Primary Education years 4, 5 and 6 ( age = 10.53, = 0.90). The results showed that 42.3% of the schoolchildren did not practice IM to school, 18.1% practiced IM one way (they went to or from school alone), and 39.5% practiced IM both way (they went to/from school alone). These findings underline the importance of parents' willingness for IM to school, and how the balance between how they perceive their children's autonomy and difficulty for IM is relevant for greater IM to school.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph16050732