2025/04/24 by Himashini Whitley, Octavia Calder‐Dawe, Anna Timperio +2 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Health Professions · #Children's Rights and Participation #Homelessness and Social Issues #Urban Transport and Accessibility
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/13229400.2025.2491560
openalex publication_date 2025/04/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
The prevalence of physical inactivity among children is a key concern shaping public health promotion, policy and research. Parental practices surrounding children’s transition to independent mobility are considered critical within this context. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with 15 Australian mothers at two time-points during their child’s early adolescent years, the period during which Australian children typically transition to independence. We adopt a Foucauldian-informed discursive approach to critically examine how mothers constructed and legitimized changes in their children’s local active mobility practices as normal and necessary. Mothers in our study understood structured approaches to parenting, including protective practices that restricted primary school children’s mobilities, as necessary to facilitate greater independence by secondary school. However, many mothers challenged these notions when faced with a sudden shift in the risk-landscape during COVID-19 restriction periods. Our analysis suggests that structured parenting practices may be beneficial for some children. However, dominant constructions of parenting may create conditions that support counterproductive parenting practices and contribute to classed understandings of ‘good parenting’.