Children put off walking by 'strangers'

Thursday, 07 Dec 2006 08:12
Schoolchildren are discouraged from making small trips on foot by the fear of 'stranger danger', a new survey says.

Two-thirds of children told researchers that they were worried about coming into contact with potentially-dangerous people they did not know while out on their own or with friends.

In addition, three-quarters of parents said they were anxious about letting their children walk by themselves over the same issue.

The authors of the study published in Archives of Disease in Childhood, a daughter title of the British Medical Journal, say that children should be encouraged to walk as often as possible to boost exercise levels and address the problem of childhood obesity.

Other reasons cited by the nine to 11-year-old respondents in the test, which was conducted in areas in and around Birmingham, for getting a lift from parents or using public transport included a lack of green and recreational areas, as well as rising traffic levels.

Of the 473 children involved in the study, almost two-thirds made less than 20 trips on foot every week.

Claiming that the lifelong patterns of physical activity are established at a young age, the study's authors conclude: "Our findings suggest that perceptions of the local environment are related to walking levels in children."

The researchers also discovered that children from ethnic minorities were more likely to get around by another mode of transport than on foot.