Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Urban Science
Volume 10 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2024.1494837

Parental and adolescents' perspectives on environmental predictors of active commuting to school -Findings from the ARRIVE mixed-methods study XXX

Provisionally accepted
Clara Tristram Clara Tristram 1*Isabel Marzi Isabel Marzi 1Franziska Beck Franziska Beck 1Katharina Diehl Katharina Diehl 1Denise Renninger Denise Renninger 2Yolanda Demetriou Yolanda Demetriou 3Claus Krieger Claus Krieger 4Anne Kerstin Reimers Anne Kerstin Reimers 1
  • 1 Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
  • 2 Technical University of Munich, Munich, Bavaria, Germany
  • 3 University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
  • 4 University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Active commuting to school (e.g., walking or cycling) can contribute to an increase in daily physical activity time of adolescents which is associated with positive health effects. However, it is known that the perceived barriers related to the physical and social environment hinder adolescents in participating in active commuting. To obtain more information about these barriers, and therefore be able to address them in the future, the present study aims to investigate how parents' and adolescents' perception of the physical and social environment is associated with (active) commuting to school.The ARRIVE study consists of a quantitative online survey with parent-adolescent dyads (N=517) followed by qualitative interviews with adolescents and parents (N=32). The quantitative part examined adolescents' travel behaviour to and from school and its predictors. The qualitative part sought to explore the decision-making process in families regarding transport mode choice. To evaluate predictors of active commuting to and from school binary logistic regression analysis and qualitative content analysis were performed. Results: In the quantitative part, we found that adolescents and parents perceive especially having much luggage to carry as crucial for adolescents' active travel. Besides this barrier on active commuting to and from school found in the questionnaires, parents and adolescents reported lack of social support, weather, convenience, lack of traffic safety and getting a lift as barriers in the interviews. Conclusion: We found differences and similarities in the perceived barriers of active commuting regarding the physical and social environment between adolescents and parents. To encourage adolescents to actively commute to school, the perception of the physical and social environment, especially from parents, be taken into account.

    Keywords: Active commuting, travel behaviour, adolescents, Parents, physical activity

    Received: 11 Sep 2024; Accepted: 06 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Tristram, Marzi, Beck, Diehl, Renninger, Demetriou, Krieger and Reimers. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Clara Tristram, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.