Barriers and determinants of active commuting to school in Slovenia

Jurak, Gregor (author), Sorić, Maroje (author), Ocvirk, Tjaša (author), Potočnik, Žan Luca (author), Meh, Kaja (author), Đurić, Saša (author), Sember, Vedrana (author), Starc, Gregor (author)

There is a growing body of literature reporting the health benefits of active commuting to school. This study investigated barriers and determinants of active commuting in children in Slovenia living within walking or cycling distance to school, i.e., 3 km. The sample consisted of 339 children (163 girls) aged 11–14 years who reported their mode of commuting, as well as their parents who described the socioeconomic environment of the family. Every third child in this study traveled to school exclusively by car/public transport, while every fifth participant used a passive means of transport when returning home from school. Potential household poverty, education of the mother and parental encouragement for physical activity were not associated with the commuting mode. In addition, conformist family barriers dominated among reasons for not choosing active commuting. A distance to school that was perceived to be too long was the most frequently cited barrier (72% of participants who passively commuted in both directions), followed by concern about being late for school (38% of participants who passively commute in one direction). Parents from all social strata who drive their children to school in either one or both directions while living in a walking or cycling range are a promising target population for active commuting interventions.

• Language: English
• Keywords: passive commuting, active commuting, traveling, driving, reasons, correlates, school, children
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FŠ - Faculty of Sport
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: 11 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 13, iss. 24, art. 13808
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-136565
• UDC: 796.01-053.2
• ISSN on article: 2071-1050
• DOI: 10.3390/su132413808
• COBISS.SI-ID: 94700547
• Publication date in RUL: 11.05.2022

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Sustainability
• Shortened title: Sustainability
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2071-1050
• COBISS.SI-ID: 5324897

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 14.12.2021

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: pasivna vožnja v šolo, aktivna vožnja v šolo, potovanje, razlogi, prihod v šolo, šola, otroci

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P5-0142
• Name: Bio-psiho-socialni konteksti kineziologije