Is it safe goto school alone? Gender impact on autonomous child mobility

Abstract

Many countries began to encourage projects to promote active and autonomous pathways to school. The aim of this study is to analyse the representations of safety regarding autonomous mobility of children participating in the Eskolabideak initiative, in particular on the study of whether these perceptions of safety are conditioned by children’s gender. The voices of 1002 children from Bizkaia have been collected on the safety they perceive on these school routes. Answers were analysed using Iramuteq software. The results show a gender imbalance in which girls perceive fear of strangers more significantly. In addition, boys have shown a more deep-rooted trust in the help of the community compared to girls, assuming that they will find people on the streets willing to help them.