Active Transportation to School: Findings From a National Survey

This article reports on a survey of active transportation to school, focusing on the bicycling or walking to school habits of a national sample of boys and girls in grades 4-12 (n = 1,395 parent-child pairs). The interviewers asked each parent and a randomly selected child from the same household about patterns of physical activity and characteristics thought to predict such activity. Overall, 14% of children and adolescents reported active transportation to school (ATS). ATS ws more frequent among boys (16.6%) than girls (11.1%) and among children in lower than upper grades: 20.5% in grades 4-6, 12.4% in grades 7-9, and 8.0% in grades 10-12. Hispanic race/ethnicity, living with one parent, and perceiving a safe neighborhood were associated with ATS in the unadjusted but not the adjusted logistic model. After adjustment, several characteristics remained independently associated with ATS, including gender, grade level, living in a suburb or small town, parent not currently married, moderate physical activity of the child, perception of being too overweight to do physical activities, and presence of neighborhood sidewalks. The authors conclude that the most modifiable characteristic associated with ATS is the presence of neighborhood sidewalks.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/02701367
• Authors:
  • Fulton, Janet E
  • Shisler, Jessica L
  • Yore, Michelle M
  • Caspersen, Carl J
• Publication Date: 2005-9

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 352-357
• Serial:
  • Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport
  • Volume: 76
  • Issue Number: 3
  • Publisher: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance
  • ISSN: 0270-1367

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age groups; Bicycling; Demographics; Ethnic groups; Families; Nonmotorized transportation; Parents; Physical fitness; Risk assessment; School children; Schools; Sidewalks; Suburbs; Walking; Walking distance
• Uncontrolled Terms: School transportation
• Subject Areas: Education and Training; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01025232
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 31 2006 9:30AM