This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: As thousands of children start high school, experts have called for children to be given more opportunities for independence before they reach adolescence. New research from the Outdoor Play Research Center at the University of Exeter, involving nearly 9,000 children and young people across England, found that greater independence was not automatically associated with better well-being.
Among adolescents, the context in which that independence was experienced mattered: For those who felt unsafe traveling within their neighborhoods, greater independence was associated with lower well-being. The findings, published in the journal Wellbeing, Space and Society, come against a backdrop of a substantial generational decline in children's freedom. Previous research has shown that the proportion of elementary school children in England allowed to walk to school alone fell from 86% in 1971 to 25% in 2010, while children are now typically granted greater independence around the age they start high school, at 11.
The researchers, led by Outdoor Play Research Center deputy director Dr. Paul McCrorie, suggest the findings raise important questions about whether children are being given enough opportunities to gradually develop the skills, confidence and familiarity with their neighborhoods that may help prepare them for greater independence in adolescence. McCrorie of the University of Exeter said, "There is a compelling argument that children need more freedom and opportunities to do things independently.
"Our findings don't contradict that. What they suggest is that simply giving children independence isn't enough. "We need to think about the conditions in which that independence happens.
Asking a young person to navigate their neighborhood independently when they don't feel safe doing so may be a very different experience from giving them freedom in an environment where they feel confident, secure and supported. "The goal shouldn't therefore just be to give children more freedom. It should be to create communities where children feel able and ready to use that freedom." The Outdoor Play Research Center has called on policymakers to respond to its research by moving beyond simply encouraging children's independence toward creating the conditions that make it possible.
This requires coordinated action across transportation, urban planning and communities, alongside support for parents to progressively give children greater freedom. The center has called for more zebra crossings, investment in crossing guards and help establishing walking buses. The Department for Transport unveiled an active travel plan in June, for walking, wheeling and cycling routes and promising 10,000 safer crossings over the next five years.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
