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The places parents go: understanding the breadth, scope, and experiences of activity spaces for parents

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Abstract

Neighborhood environments are related to parenting behaviors, which in turn have a life-long effect on children’s health and well-being. Activity spaces, which measure individual routine patterns of movement, may be helpful in assessing how physical and social environments shape parenting. In this study we use qualitative data and GIS mapping from four California cities to examine parental activity spaces. Parents described a number of factors that shape their activity spaces including caregiving status, the age of their children, and income. Parental activity spaces also varied between times (weekends vs. weekdays) and places (adult-only vs. child-specific places). Knowing how to best capture and study parental activity spaces could identify mechanisms by which environmental factors influence parenting behaviors and child health.

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Funding

The preparation of this paper was supported by a Grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (P60-AA006282). The content is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIAAA or the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Social Work, California State University, Sacramento, Sacramento, CA, USA

    Jennifer Price Wolf

  2. Prevention Research Center, Oakland, CA, USA

    Jennifer Price Wolf

  3. UCLA Department of Social Welfare, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Bridget Freisthler

  4. School of Social Welfare, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA

    Nancy J. Kepple

  5. School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Raul Chavez

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  1. Jennifer Price Wolf
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  2. Bridget Freisthler
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  3. Nancy J. Kepple
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Correspondence to Jennifer Price Wolf.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Wolf, J.P., Freisthler, B., Kepple, N.J. et al. The places parents go: understanding the breadth, scope, and experiences of activity spaces for parents. GeoJournal 82, 355–368 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-015-9690-y

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