title: Neighborhood Crime-Related Safety and Its Relation to Children's Physical Activity.
abstract: Crime is both a societal safety and public health issue. Examining different measures and aspects of crime-related safety and their correlations may provide insight into the unclear relationship between crime and children's physical activity. We evaluated five neighborhood crime-related safety measures to determine how they were interrelated. We then explored which crime-related safety measures were associated with children's total moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and MVPA in their neighborhoods. Significant positive correlations between observed neighborhood incivilities and parents' perceptions of general crime and disorder were found (r = 0.30, p = 0.0002), as were associations between parents' perceptions of general crime and disorder and perceptions of stranger danger (r = 0.30, p = 0.0002). Parent report of prior crime victimization in their neighborhood was associated with observed neighborhood incivilities (r = 0.22, p = 0.007) and their perceptions of both stranger danger (r = 0.24, p = 0.003) and general crime and disorder (r = 0.37, p < 0.0001). After accounting for covariates, police-reported crime within the census block group in which children lived was associated with less physical activity, both total and in their neighborhood (beta = -0.09, p = 0.005, beta = -0.01, p = 0.02, respectively). Neighborhood-active children living in the lowest crime-quartile neighborhoods based on police reports had 40 min more of total MVPA on average compared to neighborhood-active children living in the highest crime-quartile neighborhoods. Findings suggest that police reports of neighborhood crime may be contributing to lower children's physical activity.
authors: New Jersey State Department of Health, Family Centered Care Services, Trenton, NJ, USA, stephkp@uw.edu.
authors: Stephanie H
authors: SH
authors: Kneeshaw-Price
authors: Brian E
authors: BE
authors: Saelens
authors: James F
authors: JF
authors: Sallis
authors: Lawrence D
authors: LD
authors: Frank
authors: David E
authors: DE
authors: Grembowski
authors: Peggy A
authors: PA
authors: Hannon
authors: Nicholas L
authors: NL
authors: Smith
authors: K C Gary
authors: KC
authors: Chan
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003415:Crime / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012449:Safety / Q000706:statistics & numerical data