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Increasing children’s physical activity : individual, social, and environmental factors associated with walking to and from school

journal contribution
posted on 2012-04-01, 00:00 authored by G Trapp, B Giles-Corti, H Christian, M Bulsara, Anna TimperioAnna Timperio, G McCormack, K Villaneuva
Background. Efforts to increase the prevalence of children’s active school transport require evidence to inform the development of comprehensive interventions. This study used a multilevel ecological framework to investigate individual, social, and environmental factors associated with walking to and from school among elementary school-aged children, stratified by gender.
Method. Boys aged 10 to 13 years (n = 617) and girls aged 9 to 13 years (n = 681) attending 25 Australian primary schools located in high or low walkable neighborhoods completed a 1-week travel diary and a parent/child questionnaire on travel habits and attitudes.
Results.
Boys were more likely (odds ratio [OR] = 3.37; p < .05) to walk if their school neighborhood had high connectivity and low traffic and less likely to walk if they had to cross a busy road (OR = 0.49; p < .05). For girls, confidence in their ability to walk to or from school without an adult (OR = 2.03), school encouragement (OR = 2.43), scheduling commitments (OR = 0.41), and parent-perceived convenience of driving (OR = 0.24) were significantly associated (p < .05) with walking. Irrespective of gender and proximity to school, child-perceived convenience of walking (boys OR = 2.17 and girls OR = 1.84) and preference to walk to school (child perceived, boys OR = 5.57, girls OR = 1.84 and parent perceived, boys OR = 2.82, girls OR = 1.90) were consistently associated (p < .05) with walking to and from school.
Conclusion. Although there are gender differences in factors influencing children walking to and from school, proximity to school, the safety of the route, and family time constraints are consistent correlates. These need to be addressed if more children are to be encouraged to walk to and from school.

History

Journal

Health education and behavior

Volume

39

Issue

2

Pagination

172 - 182

Publisher

Sage Publications, Inc.

Location

Thousand Oaks, Calif.

ISSN

1090-1981

eISSN

1552-6127

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2012, Sage