title: The impact of parents' fear of strangers and perceptions of informal social control on children's independent mobility.
abstract: Declines in children's independent mobility are commonly attributed to parents' fear of strangers, yet few empirical studies have investigated this relationship. We examined: (1) the impact of parents' fear of strangers on children's independent mobility; and (2) whether informal social control (i.e., parents' confidence that other residents would look out for local children) mitigated any association. Gender stratified logistic regression models tested these associations for 10-12 year-olds and their parents (n=1231) in Perth, Australia. For girls, parental fear of strangers was associated with lower odds of independent mobility (OR=0.71, p=0.002), and informal social control and other social and built environment variables had little attenuating influence. This pattern was consistent for boys; however odds ratios were lower and statistical significance weaker. Initiatives that target parental fears combined with interventions that normalise children's walking may help increase independent mobility.
authors.affiliation: Centre for the Built Environment and Health, School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia. Electronic address: sarah.foster@uwa.edu.au.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Foster
authors.affiliation: McCaughey Centre VicHealth Centre for Community Wellbeing, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia. Electronic address: k.villanueva@unimelb.edu.au.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Villanueva
authors.affiliation: Centre for the Built Environment and Health, School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia. Electronic address: lisa.wood@uwa.edu.au.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.affiliation: Centre for the Built Environment and Health, School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia. Electronic address: hayley.christian@uwa.edu.au.
authors.forename: Hayley
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Christian
authors.affiliation: McCaughey Centre VicHealth Centre for Community Wellbeing, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia. Electronic address: b.giles-corti@unimelb.edu.au.
authors.forename: Billie
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Giles-Corti
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004779:Environment Design; D015444:Exercise; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D012449:Safety; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014739:Victoria
keywords: Children; Independent mobility; Parental fear; Physical activity; Stranger danger