Built and Natural Environmental Correlates of Parental Safety Concerns for Children's Active Travel to School

How the Built Environment Moderates Gender Gap in Active Commuting to Schools

This study investigates the influences of built environmental (BE) factors, network design, and sociodemographic factors on active school travel (AST). Although numerous studies have explored these relationships, this study is trying to assess this issue with a focus on gender differences. Data from a cross-sectional sample of children from first to sixth grades from 16 public primary schools exclusive for girls and boys (N = 1260) in Shiraz collected in November 2019 was used. The analysis of the data revealed that, on average, boys are more willing to walk than girls, but that the boys' tendency to walk is less elastic with respect to distance. Moreover, it is shown that street connectivity for all distance thresholds has a positive relationship with walking level, but the street network choice parameter decreases the chance of walking within an 800 metre threshold. It is demonstrated the need to take gender differences into account in local planning policies to promote AST in a developing country context.

Perceived Safety Influencing Active Travel to School-A Built Environment Perspective

Despite the many research studies on active school travel (AST), the number of children walking/cycling to school is decreasing as there is a lack of implementable research evidence. This review through database searches from 2000 to 2020 aims to identify research gaps and explore new perspectives. The articles are selected and screened methodically for systematic presentation of the review. An existing active school travel framework is used to structure and discuss this review paper on mediating factors influencing children's active travel to school, that is the perceived traffic safety, neighborhood safety, and distance to school. Perception of traffic safety could be ameliorated through lateral separation from the traffic, and this could be a new area of research. The neighborhood safety perception may require more research to validate the previous findings. Schools should be located within high-density residential development so that many children can walk to school.

Influences of the Built Environment on Rural School Children's Travel Mode Choice: The Case of Chengdu

Since the reform and opening up of China, the rural built environment has changed dramatically. There is a need to understand how such changes have impacted rural children’s school travel mode choice to design the built environment and plan schools accordingly. This paper combines field measurement methods and questionnaires to obtain data on rural children’s school travel behavior and uses the multinomial logit (MNL) model to investigate the impacting factors. The results show the following insights: Age has a significant positive impact on children’s choice of bicycles and buses. The improvements in road layout and facility conditions are significantly and positively associated with children’s choice of electric bicycles for school. There is a significant positive correlation between a good and safe public environment and children’s choice of cycling. Furthermore, distance from home to school has a significant impact on the choice of children’s school travel mode: the greater the distance to school, the higher the probability that children will choose motorized modes of travel such as buses and private cars. This study provides empirical data and evidence in designing rural transport systems for school children based on their preferences concerning built environment factors.

Effects of Large-Scale Municipal Safe Routes to School Infrastructure on Student Active Travel and Physical Activity: Design, Methods, and Baseline Data of the Safe Travel Environment Evaluation in Texas Schools (STREETS) Natural Experiment

Past evaluations of Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs have been relatively small in scope and have lacked objective measurements of physical activity. A 2016 Mobility Bond in Austin, Texas, USA, allocated USD 27.5 million for infrastructure changes to facilitate active commuting to schools (ACS). The Safe TRavel Environment Evaluation in Texas Schools (STREETS) study aims to determine the health effects of these infrastructure changes. The purpose of this paper is to describe the STREETS study design, methods, and selected baseline results. The STREETS study is comprised of two designs: (1) a serial cross-sectional design to assess changes in ACS prevalence, and (2) a quasi-experimental, prospective cohort to examine changes in physical activity. Differences between study arms (Austin SRTS and comparison) were assessed for school demographics, ACS, and school programs. At baseline, 14.3% of school trips were made by ACS, with non-significant differences between study arms. Only 26% of schools implemented ACS-related programs. Some significant differences across SRTS and comparison schools were identified for several school- and neighborhood-level characteristics. Substantial changes are needed across area schools and neighborhoods to promote optimum ACS. STREETS study longitudinal findings will be critical for informing optimal future implementations of SRTS programs.

Enabling Better Physical Activity and Screen Time Behaviours for Adolescents from Middle Eastern Backgrounds: Semi-Structured Interviews with Parents

The unrelenting obesity pandemic in Middle Eastern (ME) adolescents living in Australia warrants culturally responsive and locally engineered interventions. Given the influence of parents on the lifestyle behaviours of adolescents, this qualitative study aimed to capture the opinions of ME parents on the barriers and enablers to sufficient physical activity and limiting screen time behaviours in adolescents. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 ME parents (female) aged 35–59 years old, most of whom resided in lower socioeconomic areas (n = 19). A reflexive thematic analysis using the Theoretical Domains Framework and the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation-Behaviour model was performed for coding. Parents voiced confidence in their knowledge of the importance of physical activity and limiting screen time but were less optimistic in their ability to enable change in behaviours, especially for older adolescents without outside support. Despite adolescents having the necessary skills to engage in a wide array of sports, the parents admitted deep fears regarding the safety of the social environment and restricted their children’s independent mobility. Gender differences were noted, with parents reporting older girls expressing disinterest in sports and having limited physical opportunities to participate in sports at school. It may be that a community-based participatory framework is needed to improve physical activity opportunities and to address specific physical, social, and cultural barriers.

Associations of neighborhood built, safety, and social environment with walking to and from school among elementary school-aged children in Chiba, Japan

BACKGROUND

Although it is globally known that Japan has high prevalence of active school travel among children, there are few international studies on Japanese children's school travel. Moreover, only few studies have focused on the differences in their mode of travel between to-school and from-school. This study examined the associations of neighborhood built, safety, and social environments with walking to/from school among elementary school-aged children in Chiba, Japan.

METHODS

We conducted an online survey with 1545 parents of children aged 6-12 years residing in Chiba between 25 and 27 November 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. A neighborhood was defined as the area of a postcode provided by the participants. Each neighborhood environment was assessed based on the built environment (new town designation, walkability, distance to school, population density), social environment (neighborhood cohesion and connection), and safety (CCTVs, a road section for walking alone, safety volunteers). Neighborhood walkability was measured using subscales of the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (youth and abbreviated versions) including crime safety and traffic safety. Parents' perceived influence of COVID-19 on school commuting and after-school activities were also included in the model as covariates. Walking to and from school were separately analyzed using multinomial logistic regressions, where new towns and walkability were computed separately as explanatory variables.

RESULTS

Four fifths of children walked to and from school daily. Walking to school was positively associated with crime safety, neighborhood connections, and schools sited in new towns. Walking from school had positive associations with traffic safety, neighborhood cohesion, and CCTVs, but negative associations with safety volunteers and after-school activities. The presence of a section for walking alone and perceived influence of COVID-19 had negative associations with walking to and from school.

CONCLUSIONS

Recent social changes such as declining birthrate, decline in public elementary schools, and increasing after-school activities may change parental attitudes toward children's walking to/from school, and subsequently, their mode of school travel over time. To maintain the high prevalence of walking to/from school in Japan, multidisciplinary approaches involving different stakeholders from education, public health, and urban planning are required to overcome sectionalism and support this behavior in the long term.