Active school transportation : Understanding the parental decision-making process

Abstract: Few children and adolescents reach the recommended levels of daily physical activity. This trend is evident in the countries examined in this thesis: Sweden and Spain. In efforts to reverse the current trend, active school transportation (AST) and independent mobility (IM) have been suggested as opportunities to increase levels of physical activity. Unfortunately, AST and IM have decreased during recent decades; consequently, initiatives promoting such behaviors have been called for. Parents are the main decision-makers on a child’s use of AST and IM, and thus, understanding their decisions is important in efforts to promote such behaviors. The overarching aim of this thesis was to increase the understanding of the parental decision-making process concerning their children’s active transport to school.This thesis applied an exploratory sequential design, with both interview (qualitative) and cross-sectional (quantitative) designs used to attain the overall aim. Data was collected through interviews with 20 parents (I) and two surveys: the PILCAST (Parents intentions to let their child use AST) questionnaire (II-III) and the PACO (Pedalea y Anda COlegio [Cycle and walk to school]) family questionnaire (IV). In total, 1024 responses from parents were collected with the PILCAST questionnaire (II). In paper III, a sub-sample of 610 was extracted from the 1024, based on parents responding “yes” or “no” to participation in an AST intervention. In paper IV, a total of 573 parents were included in the study. Data was analyzed with content analysis (I), descriptive statistics (II-IV), confirmatory factor analysis (II), linear regression analysis (II-IV), and logistic regression analysis (IV).The main findings showed that parents’ decisions regarding AST and IM were influenced by social norms, which was reflected in appearing to be a good parent and by what significant others do in their vicinity and neighborhood (I, II, IV). The importance of social norms applied to both Swedish and Spanish parents when it comes to AST. Some, gender differences were found, showing that they might play a more important role for parents of girls when it comes to AST and IM. Further, the findings showed that attitudes influence decisions, which was reflected in how parents master everyday life by sometimes choosing what is most convenient, even though they are aware of the benefits of AST (I-II). Parents identified factors both impeding and facilitating the use of AST, while safety and trusting the child were found to be important (I-II). The findings also indicate that the intervention within the Sustainable Innovation for Children Transporting Actively (SICTA) project might positively influence parents’ beliefs about AST (III). In addition, there seems to be a habitual factor involved in the parental decision-making process (II). Differences were found between parents’ decisions to let their child cycle to school compared to letting their child walk to school (II). Finally, the parental decision-making process seems to be influenced by the child’s age and the distance between home and school (I, II, IV). The PILCAST questionnaire showed acceptable validity and reliability.In conclusion, the findings show that when aiming to promote AST and IM, social acceptance is important. This concerns both other people’s judgments of parenting and what other important referent groups are doing, encompassing the visibility of AST and IM in the parents’ vicinity and neighborhoods. Attention given to gender differences could be beneficial as well. Further, it is also important to understand the prerequisites of modern family life. It is likely that strengthening positive attitudes in parents could promote AST, but the practice also needs to be in line with their everyday life tasks. Efforts should also be made to strengthen the factors that facilitate AST. From a parental perspective, this includes safety and being supported in gaining trust in their children and their children’s capabilities with respect to the age of the children. Habit seems to play an important role, and to encourage parents to form new habits, it might be beneficial to launch AST interventions along with contextual changes, as these might open a window for change, which could occur in the transition between preschool and primary school. It could be beneficial to consider cycling and walking as different behaviors because walking seems to be more dependent on the distance to school than cycling. Further, the PILCAST questionnaire was valid and reliable, providing an increased understanding of these behaviors from a parental perspective. Finally, to make children’s use of active transport to school the more favorable choice, it seems worthwhile not only to give children the opportunity to participate but also to involve parents and address their beliefs when designing interventions.