Proceedings of The 7th International Conference on Social sciences, Humanities and Education
Year: 2022
DOI:
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Parents’ perspectives on the children’s independent mobility: A Human Capabilities Perspective
Chinyakata R., Vickerman S., Donga, G, Roman N. V
ABSTRACT:
Child’s independent mobility is essential to their physical, social, cognitive and emotional development and gives children the opportunity to explore and experience their environment. The freedom of free movement and security from all forms of harm is necessary in achieving the capability of bodily integrity which is one of the essential capabilities necessary for well-being. Despite this, research on child independent mobility in Africa remains limited. Hence, this paper focuses on parents’ perspectives on children’s independent mobility. A qualitative approach was used to guide the collection and analysis of the data. Data were collected from a sample of parents in the community and analysed through thematic analysis. The results of the study show that parents were not comfortable with the independent movement of their children due to the issues of safety around the community. This led to the restricted movement of children, supervised movements, accompaniment of children to school and organising transport to ferry children to and from school. This study, therefore, calls for the involvement of stakeholders from various levels to develop and implement strategies to promote safety and child-friendly environments in the community. This is essential in enhancing and restoring child independent mobility.
keywords: bodily integrity, child-friendly spaces, independent mobility, safety