Walkable for whom? Examining the role of the built environment on the neighbourhood-based physical activity of children.

OBJECTIVES

To date, only a few studies have attempted to study the processes by which community design and the built and social environments affect individual physical activity, especially in children. Qualitative enquiry is useful for exploring perceptions and decision-making, and to understand the processes involved in how people interact with their environments. This study used qualitative methods to gain insight into the pathways linking the neighbourhood environment with children's activity patterns.

METHODS

Data were collected in semi-structured interviews with 24 child-parent dyads (children aged 10-14 years). Families lived in neighbourhoods ranging from lowest to highest median income and representing the three main design types found in Saskatoon - urban, semi-suburban and suburban.

RESULTS

Parents and children underscored the importance of safe environments for children's physical activity: streets or paths they can cycle on without feeling threatened, parks and green spaces free of criminal activity, and neighbourhoods where people know each other and children have friends to play with. Although grid-pattern urban neighbourhoods with a high density of destinations may in principle promote active transportation, the higher levels of crime and traffic danger that tend to exist in these areas may hinder physical activity in children.CONOCLUSION: Understanding what facilitates activity in children is a complex endeavour. It requires understanding the barriers to physical activity present at the neighbourhood level as well as social and perceptual factors that act in interdependent ways to either promote or hinder children's physical activity.