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Parental chauffeurs: What drives their transport choice?
Carver, Alison Timperio, Anna Crawford, David
Carver, Alison
Timperio, Anna
Crawford, David
Abstract
Despite the widely acknowledged health benefits of active transport (e.g. walking/cycling), many parents drive their children to/from school and to other local destinations. We aimed to explore the prevalence, reported reasons and socio-demographic correlates of these behaviours. Using surveys of 430 primary and 258 secondary schoolchildren and their parents, we examined whether parents drove their child home from school and to local destinations within walking distance. We found a third of the sample, in particular around half of all primary schoolchildren, were driven home from school. Most children usually had parental accompaniment on local trips and were almost always driven. Using regression analyses we examined which of the following were associated with these behaviours: distance (to school); social trust; concern about injury while crossing a road; urban/rural location; attending primary/secondary school; sex, age of child; at least one parent not being employed full-time; household car access. In the analysis social trust and concern about injury were prominent explanatory variables. The results suggest public policy interventions that aim to improve road safety, increase community connectedness and build social trust may be important to encourage active transport for children.
Keywords
Neighbourhood, Safety, Active transport, Child, Adolescent
Date
2013
Type
Journal article
Journal
Journal of Transport Geography
Book
Volume
26
Issue
Page Range
72-77
Article Number
ACU Department
Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Collections
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
File Access
Controlled