{"id":80196,"date":"2022-09-07T17:17:38","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T21:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=80196"},"modified":"2022-09-07T17:17:38","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T21:17:38","slug":"walking-biking-to-school-encourages-independence-in-children-says-brock-researcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2022\/09\/walking-biking-to-school-encourages-independence-in-children-says-brock-researcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking, biking to school encourages independence in children, says Brock researcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

In what seems like the distant past, many children walked, biked and rode public buses to get to school and other places, either by themselves or with their peers.<\/p>\n

Although this may not happen much today, Negin Riazi urges parents to enable their children to be independently mobile.<\/p>\n

\u201cI completely understand this concern about letting your kids go out on their own,\u201d says Riazi, who is a Post-doctoral Fellow in Brock University’s Faculty of Applied Health Sciences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are concerns, like injury or \u2018stranger danger,\u2019 but there\u2019s probably never been a safer time to be a kid and to be active,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Riazi, who works with Associate Professor of Health Sciences Karen Patte on youth mental health, researches children\u2019s independent mobility and active transportation, among other topics.<\/p>\n

\"Negin

Brock University Post-doctoral Fellow Negin Riazi in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, encourages parents to enable their children to walk and bike to school by themselves or with peers.<\/p><\/div>\n

She says there are many benefits for children traversing public spaces alone or with their siblings and friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiving children the freedom to travel and play independently really helps to create active, resourceful and resilient children who are gaining a lot of skills and interacting with their environment, adults and peers,\u201d says Riazi.<\/p>\n

Yet, there have been dramatic decreases in the number of children in Canada and worldwide getting around on their own. Riazi refers to a 1990 British study<\/a> saying that, in the 1970s, 80 per cent of English children aged seven to eight walked school by themselves or with peers; that number dropped to nine per cent by 1990.<\/p>\n

In a 2019 study she led<\/a>, Riazi and her team examined factors that influence independent children\u2019s mobility in Canada. These include increased car ownership, gender, cultural backgrounds and perceptions of neighbourhood safety such as traffic infrastructure, flow and crime rates.<\/p>\n

If parents are reluctant to allow their children to get around by themselves, Riazi says the first step would be to \u201creframe\u201d negative things that could happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cReframing risk starts by recognizing that children are more likely to get hurt as a passenger in a car than if walking or biking,\u201d says Riazi, pointing to a Public Health Agency of Canada report<\/a> as evidence.<\/p>\n

Parents can teach their children about safety and help them develop the skills to navigate public spaces effectively and safely, she says.<\/p>\n

Riazi says there isn\u2019t a specific age at which children are ready to start walking, biking and riding buses on their own, since every child develops confidence and competence at their own pace. The research shows that older children are more independently mobile than their younger counterparts.<\/p>\n

Riazi gives tips for parents and communities to increase children\u2019s independent mobility:<\/p>\n