Current fear of crime, sense of community, and loneliness in italian adolescents: The role of autonomous mobility and play during childhood

Abstract A structural equation model was used to examine the role of autonomous mobility and play in public and semipublic places in childhood to predict adolescents' sense of community, fear of crime, and, through the mediation of these two last psychosocial factors, feelings of loneliness. Participants included 789 Italian students (469 females and 320 males; mean age 16.62, SD = 0.69). The instruments used were the Italian Sense of Community Scale, the Neighborhood Relations Scale, and the UCLA Loneliness Scale. A questionnaire was also administered to investigate the adolescents' current fear of crime and their autonomous mobility when they were children by asking them to recall their play habits and independent mobility at 8–10 years of age. The structural equation model proved satisfying: Higher autonomous mobility and higher use of public places for play in childhood predicted less intense fear of crime and a stronger sense of community in adolescence. Furthermore, a better relationship with community predicted less pervasive feelings of loneliness. The simultaneous multigroup analysis showed that the final model was comparable for both girls and boys with only one difference. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.