title: Parent perceptions of neighborhood safety and children's physical activity, sedentary behavior, and obesity: evidence from a national longitudinal study.
abstract: We examined the relationship between parent-perceived neighborhood safety and children's physical activity, sedentary behavior, body mass, and obesity status using 9 years of longitudinal data (1999-2007) on a cohort of approximately 19,000 US kindergartners from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. Children's height and weight measurements and parent perceptions of neighborhood safety were available in kindergarten and in the first, third, fifth, and eighth grades. Dependent variables included age- and gender-specific body mass index percentile, obesity status, and parent- or child-reported weekly physical activity and television-watching. Pooled cross-sectional and within-child longitudinal regression models that controlled for child, family, and school characteristics were fitted. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal models indicated that children whose parents perceived their neighborhoods as unsafe watched more television and participated in less physical activity, although the magnitude of this association was much weaker in longitudinal models. However, there was no significant association between parent-perceived neighborhood safety and children's body mass index.
authors.affiliation: RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407, USA. datar@rand.org
authors.forename: Ashlesha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Datar
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nicosia
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Shier
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012449:Safety / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D013690:Television / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: body mass index; motor activity; obesity; residence characteristics