Rotinas de vida e independência de mobilidade de crianças do 2º Ciclo de escolaridade de dois contextos sociogeográficos distintos

The main goal of the study was to get acquainted with and to compare life routines and the independence of mobility of children who live in two sociogeographicaly  distinct contexts (Coimbra and Leiria). To do so, we inquired both 310 children and their parents.The results indicated that children develop different types of activities within and out of their familiar context: indoors, those activities focused essentially in new informational technology, outdoors, the bicycle seems to be the main activity. Playing sports in a club is a regular practice for nearly half of the children, but girls in Leiria being the ones who present a lower inscription rate. For all the groups lack of time is the main obstacle for non participation in physical and sports activities.Youths in Leiria enjoy, in larger numbers, an unlimited range of autonomous mobility, compared with their counterparts in Coimbra; it is also important to note a greater control of the girls’ autonomy in both contexts. In regard to means of transportation, children from Coimbra move, in larger numbers, by car in the presence of adults, whereas the ones in Leiria show greater variation in their mobility: moving by walk, in their bicycles and by car (with their parents), being often with their friends.Constraints imposed by the parents, in the street are essentially motivated by children’s early age, traffic, danger of accident, crime and urban organization.