Personal, family, social, and environmental correlates of active commuting to school.

By A. Timperio, K. Ball, J. Salmon, R. Roberts, Billie Giles-Corti, Dianne Simmons, Louise A. Baur, D. Crawford. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2006

843 citations recorded by the source corpus.

BACKGROUND Active commuting to school may be an important opportunity for children to accumulate adequate physical activity for improved cardiovascular risk factors, enhanced bone health, and psychosocial well-being. The purpose of this study was to examine personal, family, social, and environmental correlates of active commuting to school among children. METHODS Cross-sectional study of 235 children aged 5 to 6 years and 677 children aged 10 to 12 years from 19 elementary schools in Melbourne, Australia. Self-administered questionnaires were completed by parents, and the older children. The shortest possible routes to school were examined using a geographic information system. RESULTS Among both age groups, negative correlates of active commuting to school included parental perception of few other children in the neighborhood and no lights or crossings for their child to use, and an objectively assessed busy road barrier en route to school. In younger children, an objectively assessed steep incline en route to school was negatively associated with walking or cycling to school. Good connectivity en route to school was negatively associated with walking or cycling to school among older children. Among both age groups, children were more likely to actively commute to school if their route was <800 meters. There were no associations with perceived energy levels or enjoyment of physical activity, weight status, or family factors. CONCLUSIONS For children, creating child-friendly communities and providing skills to safely negotiate the environment may be important. Environmental correlates of active transport in children and adults may differ and warrant further investigation.

Subfields: Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, Transportation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bd9c0aef109dcb5cd6cae0043842c277e2a8238e

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Citations in the corpus

Children's Perceptions of the Use of Public Open Spaces for Active Free-play (2007, background): “An Australian cross-sectional study of children aged 5–6 years (n 1⁄4 235) and 10–12 years (n 1⁄4 677) found that a need to cross busy roads, and poor access to lights and crossings were negatively associated with frequency of walking/cycling to school (Timperio et al., 2006).”
Promoting walking and bicycling: assessing the evidence to assist planners (2010, background): “Work on children has found that both actual and perceived distance and barriers, like busy streets, matter in the walk to school (Ewing et al., 2004; Timperio et al., 2006; Black et al., 2001; Timperio et al., 2004; CDC, 2005).”
Adolescents' perceptions of cycling versus walking to school: Understanding the New Zealand context (2017, background): “Other barriers to active transport to school such as the weather,(37, 38) hills,(39) high rates of private vehicle ownership(8, 40) and convenience of being driven (e.”
Independent Mobility and Mode Choice for School Transportation: A Review and Framework for Future Research (2013, background): “steep slope) also influenced mode choice (Lin & Chang, 2010; Panter et al., 2008; Timperio et al., 2006).”
Understanding the Underutilization of Urban Bicycle Commuting: A Behavioral Reasoning Perspective (2014, background): “2009), neighborhood types (Timperio et al. 2006), and local weather conditions (Fishman et al.”
Where Do Children Travel to and What Local Opportunities Are Available? The Relationship Between Neighborhood Destinations and Children’s Independent Mobility (2013, methodology): “An 800-m circular buffer was used because parents have previously reported that a round trip of 1.6 km (i.e., 800 m one way) is a “walkable distance” for their child (Timperio et al., 2006).”
The bubble‐wrap generation: children growing up in walled gardens (2007, background): “, ( 2006 ) conducted a study where they asked 10‐ to 12‐year‐old children and their parents (677 families) to identify their concerns about children using the streets.”
Walking to school: Community design and child and parent barriers (2011, background): “The major types of concerns include those of perceived street-crossing danger, traffic danger, general difficulty walking, perceived distance, and crime danger (Ahlport, Linnan, Vaughn, Evenson, & Ward, 2008; Hume et al., 2009; Kerr et al., 2006; Merom, TudorLocke, Bauman, & Rissel, 2006; MMWR, 2005”
Commuting by Bicycle: An Overview of the Literature (2010, background): “In general, an increase in trip distance results in cycling having a much lower share in mode choice (Moritz, 1998; Zacharias, 2005; Pucher and Buehler, 2006) and for commuting (Cervero, 1996; Dickinson et al., 2003; Timperio et al., 2006; Parkin et al., 2008).”