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Parents’ barriers to the active transport of their children. Systematic review.

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A review of the international scientific literature was carried out with the aim of knowing the main barriers that parents perceive to allow their children to travel actively to school, that is, on foot or by bicycle.

In this review, 27 studies were identified and a categorization that defines three types was created: environmental, personal and social. Environmental barriers refer to the human-made environment, such as a building block or a bike path. Personal barriers refer to your own work and school hours or the convenience of taking your children to school. And social barriers include the absence of other children on the way to school or other adults.

The main barriers that parents of Primary Education children perceive for the active transport of their children are references to the built environment and second, the traffic. However, parents of adolescents perceive the built environment, just like parents of children, as well as distance as barriers. Therefore, parents of children and adolescents see the distance, the traffic or the built environment as the main problems.

To improve these perceptions of parents, it is necessary to act with two strategies: a) making environmental changes to offer more safety to parents, making improvements and widening sidewalks, or implementing bike lanes; b) educating parents and their children to reduce these perceived barriers and increase confidence in the environment causing behavioral change by participating in pedibus or “bike train”. It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that our children are as active as possible for a society with greater health and well-being, as well as for the physical and personal development of our schoolchildren.

This article is signed by the researchers María Jesús Aranda-Balboa, Francisco Javier Huertas-Delgado, Manuel Herrador-Colmenero, Palma Chillón Garzón, from University of Granada. Along with them they have had the researcher Greet Gardon (University of Ghent).

Aranda-Balboa, M. J., Huertas-Delgado, F. J., Herrador-Colmenero, M., Cardon, G., & Chillón, P. (2019). Parental barriers to active transport to school: a systematic review. International journal of public health, 1-12.

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  • Date of publication
    May 13, 2020

Web financiada por la Junta de Andalucía, Consejería de Conocimiento, Investigación y Universidades, Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), proyecto SOMM17/6107/UG

Web financiada por la Junta de Andalucía, Consejería de Conocimiento, Investigación y Universidades, Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), proyecto SOMM17/6107/UGR