Children’s independent mobility: the role of school-based social capital

ABSTRACT

Research has documented the decline in children’s independent mobility (CIM) globally. CIM is a measure of the level of a child’s freedom to move about his or her local neighbourhood without direct adult supervision. This paper explores the effectiveness of three intervention programmes to change travel behaviours of children to and from school in 26 Catholic primary schools in a range of urban and regional settings in Victoria, Australia. Using pre and post intervention surveys with 1600 students and parents, and interviews with school principals, we measured the influence of a range of individual, social, and built environment factors on the effectiveness of these intervention programmes. The degree of social connectedness of the school and the individual was found to have the most impact on the effectiveness of the intervention programmes to change behaviours, while the interventions themselves were not greatly effective without being embedded in a supportive school culture.

KEYWORDS:

• Children’s independent mobility
• intervention programmes
• Catholic schools
• journey to school
• social capital
• connectedness

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the 26 schools for agreeing to participate in the research, and the assistance of Catholic Education Melbourne, VicRoads, the Transport Accident Commission (Victoria), and Bicycle Victoria in the course of its progress.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Karen Villanueva http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7721-1880

Carolyn Whitzman http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8544-0328

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.