Transport and child well-being: An integrative review

Children’s Life Satisfaction and Satisfaction with School Travel

“…There may also be additional transport-related factors which are of importance to children's life satisfaction and which were not measured in the present study. One such factor is independent travel, which enables social interaction with friends -an important aspect of children's wellbeing (Waygood et al 2017). Another factor is travel time, which allows children to engage in activities that influence certain aspects of their wellbeing (Westman et al 2016).…”

“…In a theoretical model developed by Ettema et al (2010), it is suggested that, among adults, life satisfaction is also related to their daily travel since a journey can facilitate attendance at important activities, as well as elicit positive and negative affect. For children, travel is an activity enabling them to participate in and contribute to the community, providing them with opportunities to freely move from one place to another (Waygood et al 2017). These theoretical relationships have been confirmed in studies of adults (e.g.…”

“…However, the question remains of whether or not the model proposed by Ettema et al (2010) is applicable to children. A recent integrative review (Waygood et al 2017) focuses on the means by which transport influences children's wellbeing, identifying five main domains of wellbeing relating to transport; i.e. physical, psychological, cognitive, social, and economic.…”

“…Most of the identified benefits of travel are associated with active and independent travel, whereas the most negative impact is associated with road traffic (e.g., crashes, pollution, and noise). Although an existing body of international research supports the notion that travel is important to children's wellbeing, it is clear that research in this area is in its infancy (Waygood et al 2017).…”

“…For biking and walking, children further highlighted the enjoyment of experiencing nature. Another area of research focuses on social interactions during travel (e.g., Goodman et al 2014;Waygood et al 2017), showing the importance of friends for experiencing the journey positively; when interviewed, 9-year-old children said that if a friend joined them in the car they would enjoy the journey (Barker 2009). In contrast, children who travelled by car with their parents and siblings said that they would rather travel independently.…”