Physical activity and car dependency in modern childhood. Are we socializing our children to car use and poor health?

For children the possibility to be physical active is very important for both physical health and well-being. Several studies claim that a reduction in physical activities (including daily travel) is an important reason for increased weight and obesity am ong children. When everyday life is organized in a way that makes the car the most "natural" travel mode also for children, we are taking away children's possibility for physical activity as a part of their daily life, and in addition make them more depen dent on parents and other adults. The intention of the proposed project is to employ a holistic approach on children's physical activity. We want to analyse this phenomenon in the social context it appears. The intention is to analyse a broad spectre of c hildren's physical activities, school trips, the amount of outdoor play and organized leisure activities, and also relate this activity to the family situation and the parents travel behaviour. The proposed project contains three research themes: 1. Mobi lity in daily life; social trends and development. A theoretical and empirical basis for understanding the context of children's physical activities and travel patterns. 2. Analysis of children's activity and travel patterns in different contexts also rel ated to the travel practice of their parents. The most important data sources are the National passenger travel survey 2005 with the additional survey of children's physical environment and activity, and the surveys of Norwegian school trips 2002 and 2005 . 3. A review and discussion of "good-practice" initiatives to reduce children's car use. Proposals for adjustments for the Norwegian context. The project will arrange three workshops, addressing objectives related to the three research themes; one semin ar in the last year of the project to disseminate knowledge from the project to planning authorities from both the national and local level; health, transport, education and land use planners.