Children’s Independent Mobility: A Pilot Study and Test-Retest Reliability of an Instrument

Lingyi Qiu (Texas A&M University)
Xuemei Zhu (Texas A&M University)

Background: Children’s independent mobility (CIM) (i.e., moving around without adults’ company) has significant impacts on children’s physical, mental, and social development. However, recent decades have witnessed a steep decline in CIM. Due to young ages, children rely more on immediate surroundings—housing and neighborhood environments. This study aimed to develop a reliable survey instrument to assess CIM, related housing/ neighborhood environmental factors, and individual/social factors. Methods: The survey instrument was initially developed based on validated survey instruments—the Safe Routes to School Survey (Zhu & Lee, 2008) and Neighborhood Environments Walkability Scale- Youth Survey (Rosenberg et al., 2009)—and findings from Qiu and Zhu (2017)’s systematic review of studies on impacts of physical environment on CIM. It includes sections about independent school commute, home-based and unsupervised outdoor play, housing/neighborhood environments, and personal/social factors. Participants (N=29) were recruited through the bulk email system at a research university. Parents who are the primary caregivers of a child attending elementary or middle school were eligible for participation. The authors first conducted cognitive interviews (N=10), and then carried out a test-retest with a 2-week time interval (N=19). Test-retest reliability was examined in SPSS using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) for individual items and composite scores.

Results: Results of cognitive interviews helped further finalize the survey. Most items showed moderate to high reliability, with ICCs ranging from 0.51 to 1.00 in the test-retest. Overall, results suggested that the survey could be a reliable instrument for assessing CIM.

Conclusions and Implications: The study showed that the survey was a reliable instrument for examining (1) CIM including independent travel toschool and non-school destinations, and unsupervised outdoor play, (2) housing/neighborhood environmental factors, and (3) individual/social factors. Currently, the survey is being distributed to 23 elementary schools in Austin, TX to better understand how home and neighborhood environments may influence CIM.