Geographies of Children’s Worlds: The Role of Free Range Parenting

• In Event: 3-135 - Understanding Spatial Processes: Spatial Behavior in Real Time and in Real-World Settings

Integrative Statement

Given the emphasis in the last two decades on things spatial, it is important to understand what that emphasis does, and importantly, does not include. Developmental and cognitive psychologists have explored the developing understanding of space, primarily thought of in terms of geometric models of distance and directional relationships. These explorations fit within the spatial turn, an intellectual movement that emphasizes place and space in the digital sciences and humanities.

In psychology, approaches to space have drawn upon concepts and analytic tools from geography and cartography. However, these approaches are limited: space is treated only in the abstract. The limitation is understandable in an experimental approach in which control is crucial to the process of explanation.

Within geography, space and place have meanings beyond those typically used in psychology. Place is defined as a part of a space that is endowed with meaning. The pair, 41.8̊ N. and 87.6̊ W., identify the location of Chicago. As a place, Chicago can be the ‘windy city,’ the ‘second city,’ the ‘city beautiful,’ the ‘city with big shoulders.’ It is full of neighborhoods that have names and meanings to the people who live there. Meanings can be shared by many people or be particular to one person. Place is more than a name: it is a feeling, an association, a memory.

To a geographer, space and place come together in understanding the way that the world works. It is the assemblage of trees, roads, buildings, rivers, farms, factories, schools, etc. that is the context for human behavior.

As a geographer interested in children’s spatial behavior, I argue for a geographic turn: an intellectual movement that emphasizes the places that constitute the child’s world. Places do fit within cognitive spatial structures, but we must also understand the meanings of those places and how the geographic world shapes the child’s behavior.

A geographic turn is not a novel approach in developmental psychology. Lewin’s field theory and Barker’s behavior setting both took the child’s world seriously. Cobb linked children’s play with places, and Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model identified key places of children’s lives.

Geographers in the last two decades have studied children’s geographical worlds in detail. The child’s geographical world is shaped and structured by distance, terrain, landmarks, physical barriers, clearly defined edges, hazardous places, and attractive places. Behavior in those geographical worlds is a function of types of activity, age, gender, personality, cultural and historical context, whether the child is alone or not, and importantly, parenting style.

In this presentation, I will use the controversy over free range parenting to show how children’s spatial behavior is shaped by the interactions among parental beliefs, children’s needs, and the legal system. Free range parents allow children to move about the world without constant adult supervision. For free range parents, it is important that their children have the freedom to explore the world. For society, it is important to protect children from the threats and dangers of the world.

Author

• Roger M. Downs, Penn State
  Presenting Author