Urban Form and Family-Engaged Active Leisure: Impact Assessment Using the Census Data and Nighttime Satellite Images

This research examines whether urban form indicators are useful predictors of family-engaged active leisure among U.S. population. The study sample includes 23,759 adult respondents from the 2003-2008 American Time Use Survey who lived with family members in 326 metropolitan counties. Urban form is measured at the county level by two methods: one uses the remotely-sensed nighttime satellite imagery and generates scale-adjusted sprawl indices based upon per capita land consumption, and another uses the ground-based Census data and generates a multi-dimensional measurement system, termed 3C+P: compactness, continuity, centrality, and proximity. Regression results across models consistently suggest a significant and negative association between sprawl and daily time spent on family-engaged active leisure. The scale-adjusted sprawl indices are found to be on par with the 3C+P indicators in measuring urban sprawl and predicting familyengaged active leisure. Implications of the findings for researchers and practitioners are discussed.