Neighborhood Crime-Related Safety and Its Relation to Children's Physical Activity.

Crime is both a societal safety and public health issue. Examining different measures and aspects of crime-related safety and their correlations may provide insight into the unclear relationship between crime and children's physical activity. We evaluated five neighborhood crime-related safety measu...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Urban Health Vol. 92; no. 3; pp. 472 - 490
Autores principales: Kneeshaw-Price, Stephanie, Saelens, Brian, Sallis, James, Frank, Lawrence, Grembowski, David, Hannon, Peggy, Smith, Nicholas, Chan, K.
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Jun2015
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:Crime is both a societal safety and public health issue. Examining different measures and aspects of crime-related safety and their correlations may provide insight into the unclear relationship between crime and children's physical activity. We evaluated five neighborhood crime-related safety measures to determine how they were interrelated. We then explored which crime-related safety measures were associated with children's total moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and MVPA in their neighborhoods. Significant positive correlations between observed neighborhood incivilities and parents' perceptions of general crime and disorder were found ( r = 0.30, p = 0.0002), as were associations between parents' perceptions of general crime and disorder and perceptions of stranger danger ( r = 0.30, p = 0.0002). Parent report of prior crime victimization in their neighborhood was associated with observed neighborhood incivilities ( r = 0.22, p = 0.007) and their perceptions of both stranger danger ( r = 0.24, p = 0.003) and general crime and disorder ( r = 0.37, p < 0.0001). After accounting for covariates, police-reported crime within the census block group in which children lived was associated with less physical activity, both total and in their neighborhood (beta = −0.09, p = 0.005, beta = −0.01, p = 0.02, respectively). Neighborhood-active children living in the lowest crime-quartile neighborhoods based on police reports had 40 min more of total MVPA on average compared to neighborhood-active children living in the highest crime-quartile neighborhoods. Findings suggest that police reports of neighborhood crime may be contributing to lower children's physical activity.