Abstract
Children’s “independent mobility”, measured by parental license on children’s activities, means the ability of children to walk their neighborhood without adult accompaniment. Recently, concerns have been raised that decreasing children’s independent mobility negatively correlate with outdoor play of children in many developed countries. Although the relationship between children’s independent mobility and children’s outdoor play assumes to depend on the characteristics of the area children lived, it is not clear. This study aims to identify the area difference of the relationship between children’s independent mobility and their outdoor play. From a questionnaire survey of 2861 children and 2196 parents in five elementary schools located in Tsukuba City, we found the following results. a) Independent mobility of children living in rural areas is lower than those who live in urban areas. b) Children’s independent mobility tends to correlate positive with the number of types, playmates and, places of children’s outdoor play. c) The positive correlation between children’s independent mobility and their outdoor plays in rural areas is stronger than urban areas. d) The reasons of low level of independent mobility in rural areas are longer distance to children’s playgrounds from their homes, parental perceived danger against traffic or crimes, and parental low level of perceived support to their children from their neighborhoods. In conclusion, we discuss the area difference of the relationship between children’s independent mobility and their outdoor play.
