THE FACTORS AFFECTING CHILDREN’S INDEPENDENT MOBILITY IN JAPAN

Abstract

Children’s Independent Mobility (CIM) can be defined as children’s freedom to travel around their own neighborhood or city without adult supervision, which is an important factor in children’s health and physical, social, and mental development. CIM has been discussed since the 1970s and, in many studies, was evaluated by CIM license which is one of the CIM’s indicators. Some papers have suggested that CIM has been on the decline over the past few decades as a result of guardians’ concerns about traffic. In Japan it has been found that children are not allowed to go out on their own as freely as their guardians were. However, the factors affecting CIM in Japan are not clear. The purpose of this study was to clarify these factors by using ordered logistic regression modeling. In the findings, three points were revealed. First, it was shown that CIM was affected by guardians’ concerns about traffic, which was consistent with findings in previous studies. Second, it was confirmed that the factors affecting each license are different. Finally, CIM was proved to be consistently affected by the freedoms or limitations assigned to guardians when they were children.