Making the right decision for our children's future: Parents' perceptions of active school travel in disadvantaged neighborhoods

Abstract

BackgroundChildren's possibility to be physically active is linked to their parent's socioeconomic status. The use of active travel has the potential to increase daily physical activity among children. Parents are the gate-keepers to children using active school travel (AST) and their perceptions has shown to impact children's travel mode. Few studies have explored parents' perceptions about AST in disadvantaged neighborhoods and there is a lack of knowledge of their perceptions of the physical and social environment associated with school travel. PurposeTo explore parents’ perceptions towards AST when living in disadvantaged neighborhoods. MethodsTwelve parents participated in semi-structured interviews, and a qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data. ResultsThe findings show that parents faced dilemmas, striving to facilitate AST. Parents perceptions are presented as A, B, C categories that are likely to be important when promoting AST in disadvantaged neighborhoods, Acknowledging AST advantages, Balancing barriers, and Creating opportunities to use AST. ConclusionsDespite having a positive attitude towards AST, insecure neighborhoods and social exclusion affect parents'descisions about AST. When promoting AST in disadvantaged neighborhoods, measures to enable AST should include efforts supporting community building, social participation, road safety and ways of promoting bicycling. Engaging children in AST could have a positive influence on their independent mobility, thereby impacting their development and preparing them for the future.