Abstract
The social dimension of children's lives is an essential part of growing up. A generation ago, researchers examined how transport influenced children's social lives in their communities. Those findings suggested that increased traffic diminished children's opportunities for social interactions. Since that time though, little research has considered this dimension of their lives. Most recent research on children and transport has focused on explaining modal choice for trips to school, or their independent mobility and relationships to physical activity. The research that has been conducted on the social dimension of children's travel has found that it helps children foster relationships with friends and adults, contributing to their social capital. Social capital in turn, along with good social environments in general, is linked to increased likelihoods of traveling by active modes and independent travel. Interaction with friends during a trip also improves satisfaction with trips and is linked to improved moods. This chapter will summarize relevant work on the social dimension of children's travel, discuss the potential to expand knowledge on the subject, and present results from a recent quantitative study examining the complex interaction of children's travel and their social interactions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Social Issues in Transport Planning |
| Editors | Rafael H.M. Pereira, Geneviève Boisjoly |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| Chapter | 3 |
| Pages | 71-100 |
| Number of pages | 30 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780128229828 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2021 |
Publication series
| Name | Advances in Transport Policy and Planning |
|---|---|
| Volume | 8 |
| ISSN (Print) | 2543-0009 |
| ISSN (Electronic) | 2542-9116 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2021 Elsevier Inc.
Funding
This chapter summarized the growing field of the social domain of children's travel and presented results from a recent study examining how transport relates to social interactions and connections with one's community and friends outside of school. Previous work and the research reported here generally demonstrate that independent travel positively relates to trip satisfaction and that trip satisfaction positively relates to life satisfaction. It likely does so by facilitating trips to meet with friends. Active and independent travel positively relate to social interactions, be they either incidental during trips or meeting with friends. Further, such travel supports or is supported by greater social capital. Even though modern technology exists to easily contact and even see friends “live,” children still prefer to be with their peers, and that facilitating CIM would likely support them when they want to talk about serious topics. As such, the overall findings would suggest that improving children's ability to travel independently and actively will increase their overall social wellbeing.
Keywords
- Children's travel
- CIM
- Social dimensions
- Social environment
- Social interactions