Active transportation as a way to increase physical activity among children

Abstract

Replacing short motorized trips with walking could increase the physical activity level of children and contribute to meet the recommended guidelines, as long as these walking trips add to their daily physical activity volume. It could also reduce their dependence towards adults for moving around.

Exploring the Barriers and Facilitators to Children’s Active Transportation to and From School From the Perspectives of Practitioners

“…Travel destinations for young children relies heavily on vehicle use, with almost half of trips being made as a vehicle passenger and 31% of the daily vehicle trips being less than 0.6 miles. 21 This finding is consistent with reports from our study, where participants shared instances of parents driving mere blocks to bring their children to school. This use of vehicles to drive short distances represents a "culture of convenience" and social norms tied to perceptions of "how far is too far" to use ATS.…”

A process-oriented measure of habit strength for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity

“…Similarly, the strengthening of activity-specific SR bonds via point-of-decision prompts and other stimulus control procedures also has a positive influence on exercise activity (Kahn et al, 2002 ; Marcus, Rossi, Selby, Niaura, & Abrams, 1992 ). Active transport strategies encourage automaticity of energy expenditure by deliberately linking exercise with frequently undertaken and therefore highly automated daily activities (de Bruijn et al, 2009 ; Gordon-Larsen, Nelson, & Beam, 2005 ; Grow et al, 2008 ; Morency & Demers, 2010 ). Negative consequences for nonperformance are an element of self-reevaluation and environmental reevaluation, two important processes of change within the transtheoretical model (Grove et al, 2013 ; Marcus et al, 1992 ).…”

Assessing the health-related outcomes and correlates of active transportation in children and youth

“…Additionally, Morency and Demers (2010) estimated that if 5-14 years old children in Montréal replaced all their motorized trips of less than 1 km by walking, they would accumulate an average of 2,238 additional steps/day.…”