Parenting Journal · Volume 2 · Issue 1 · Licensed source edition
Housing and Community Environments vs. Independent Mobility: Roles in Promoting Children’s Independent Travel and Unsupervised Outdoor Play
Originally published 2021-02-22 · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) · DOI 10.3390/ijerph18042132 ↗
Editorial reading guide · Independence
Which features of our street make a short independent trip realistic?
This article examines housing and neighbourhood conditions that allow children to travel and play independently. Here independence concerns permission to take an actual journey or play without direct supervision, within the conditions of a particular place.
Who was studied?
Families of elementary-school children in Austin, Texas, surveyed in English or Spanish.
Age / stage: Grades 2–5
Read with three questions
- What does the article establish about housing and neighbourhood conditions that allow children to travel and play independently?
- Whose perspective was recorded, and what might an independent observer have described differently?
- How closely does the population described here match the family or setting you have in mind? The population to compare is families of elementary-school children in Austin, Texas, surveyed in English or Spanish.
Keep the limits in view
The study concerned one US city and relied on parents’ accounts. Its neighbourhood and housing patterns may not describe another child’s travel options.
The text below is the original article’s licensed repository edition. Its wording is not rewritten. Use the Paper Agent beside the text to locate evidence; open the source for figures, tables and complete context.
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Follow the original.
Original authorship, publication date, journal and DOI are preserved. This issue’s TRICK placement and reading questions are editorial additions, not claims made by the original authors.
Lingyi Qiu; Xuemei Zhu; Mildred E Warner (2021). Housing and Community Environments vs. Independent Mobility: Roles in Promoting Children’s Independent Travel and Unsupervised Outdoor Play International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18042132
Permissions checked against the saved article notice; repository publication notices screened 2026-11-04. This is not a new peer-review decision. The source authors and publishers are not represented as endorsing this issue.