Children and Parental Barriers to Active Commuting to School: A Comparison Study

Abstract

The main objectives of this study were: to compare the barriers to active commuting to and from school (ACS) between children and their parents separately for children and adolescents; and to analyze the association between ACS and the children’s and parents’ barriers. A total of 401 child–parent pairs, from Granada, Jaén, Toledo and Valencia, self-reported, separately, their mode of commuting to school and work, respectively, and the children’s barriers to ACS. T-tests and chi-square tests were used to analyze the differences by age for continuous and categorical variables, respectively. Binary logistic regressions were performed to study the association between ACS barriers of children and parents and ACS. Both children and adolescents perceived higher physical and motivational barriers and social support barriers towards ACS than their parents (all p < 0.05). Additionally, the parents perceived higher distance, traffic safety, convenience, built environment, crime-related safety and weather as barriers towards ACS, than their children (all p < 0.05). Moreover, a higher perception of barriers was related to lower ACS. The results of our study showed the necessity of attenuating the perceptions of children and their parents in order to increase ACS. This is relevant to develop interventions in the specific contexts of each barrier and involving both populations.

Correlates of Active Commuting to School among Portuguese Adolescents: An Ecological Model Approach

“…In our study, the adolescents who reported strong support from their families showed stronger associations with attending school in an active way. One of the most important barriers to AC for teenagers was motivational and social support barriers [ 34 ].…”

“…Our findings suggest that adolescents need physical or motivational encouragement and support to walk or cycle to school. It is essential to develop interventions linked to specific contexts, as barriers for parents of children and parents of adolescents are similar but not the same and, consequently, interventions in school and high school may differ [ 34 ]. Subsequently, we also highlight the need to design detailed interventions that involve both populations (parents and adolescents children) [ 34 ].…”

“…It is essential to develop interventions linked to specific contexts, as barriers for parents of children and parents of adolescents are similar but not the same and, consequently, interventions in school and high school may differ [ 34 ]. Subsequently, we also highlight the need to design detailed interventions that involve both populations (parents and adolescents children) [ 34 ]. At this level, it is also important to consider that, in this study, AC involved two behaviors: walking and cycling.…”

“…Our data show that living less than 16 min from school is a strong indicator of the probability of adopting AC. Furthermore, cross-sectional studies have consistently shown distance as a main barrier to AC [ 34 ] and it is the strongest variable influencing AC to school among young people [ 54 , 55 ].…”

“…Low socioeconomic status [ 32 ] and fewer vehicles at home [ 33 ] are positively correlated with AC. Conversely, the perceptions of parents about longer distance, traffic safety, convenience, built environment, crime-related safety, and weather are related to lower AC among children [ 34 ]. The results of the Aranda-Balboa, Chillón, Saucedo-Araujo, Molina-García and Huertas-Delgado [ 34 ] showed the need to modify the perceptions of children and their parents to increase AC.…”