Decreasing experiences of home range, outdoor spaces, activities and companions: changes across three generations in Sheffield in north England

Abstract

Home range is commonly understood to be the distance from home that children are allowed to go in the outdoor environment with the term being used within various academic disciplines. Different factors influence children's home range including traffic, age, parental fears and understandings of what it means to be a good parent. Research addressing home range over different generations has identified a context of changes in the built environment, demography and technology. This paper reports results from three generations of two families in Sheffield in the north of England and confirms a reduction in four major domains: home range, variety of outdoor spaces visited, range of activities undertaken and the number of companions.

Keywords:

• home range
• children's independent mobility
• outdoor environments
• cross-generations

Acknowledgements

The author is very grateful to Lizzie for the intelligent way in which she undertook the project. We are also very grateful to the families who were keen to share their childhood experiences of home range and to Alison Somerset Ward for helping to access the families.

Funding

The author thanks the University of Sheffield for the Sheffield Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) funding that allowed Lizzie Griffin to work on this project.