‘Just normal’, ‘calming’ and ‘well looked after’: a qualitative exploration of adolescents’ constructions of active mobility and place in Australia

The active mobility experiences of adolescents intersect with those of younger children and older youth in many ways. However, existing research informing health promotion is limited in its exploration of the distinct features that differentiate adolescent active mobilities and the differences within adolescence. Drawing on interviews and audio-recorded walking tours with 12 adolescents aged between 12 and 15 from urban areas of Australia, this paper examines adolescents' constructions of active mobility and place in their local areas. We adopted a constructionist epistemological approach and conducted a reflexive thematic analysis of adolescents' accounts. Our analysis suggests that adolescents construct mobility as an everyday, utilitarian practice, and understand clean, well-maintained places to constitute a 'good' neighbourhood. Unlike younger children, our analysis illustrates how urban risk was also constructed as an everyday aspect of mobility that adolescents could navigate with little effort. Mobility as offering connection (both socially and to self) was also a key theme generated by our analysis as a potentially distinct aspect of local active mobilities during the adolescencent years. Based on this, we recommend further critical enquiry into opportunities for enhancing connection in mobility among adolescents from diverse population groups.