Psychosocial and Environmental Correlates of Walking, Cycling, Public Transport and Passive Transport to Various Destinations in Flemish Older Adolescents

Hannah Verhoeven; Dorien Simons; Delfien Van Dyck; Jelle Van Cauwenberg; Peter Clarys; Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij; Bas de Geus; Corneel Vandelanotte; Benedicte Deforche

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147128

Psychosocial and Environmental Correlates of Walking, Cycling, Public Transport and Passive Transport to Various Destinations in Flemish Older Adolescents

PLoS One. 2016 Jan 19;11(1):e0147128. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147128. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Hannah Verhoeven^{1

2

3}, Dorien Simons^{1

2

3}, Delfien Van Dyck^{3

4}, Jelle Van Cauwenberg^{1

2

3}, Peter Clarys², Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij⁴, Bas de Geus⁵, Corneel Vandelanotte⁶, Benedicte Deforche^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, De Pintelaan 185, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium.
² Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Physical Education and Physical Therapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium.
³ Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (FWO), Egmontstraat 5, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium.
⁴ Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Watersportlaan 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium.
⁵ Department of Human Physiology, Faculty of Physical Education and Physical Therapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium.
⁶ Central Queensland University, Institute for Health and Social Science Research, Physical Activity Research Group, Bruce Highway, Rockhampton QLD 4702, Australia.

Abstract

Background: Active transport is a convenient way to incorporate physical activity in adolescents' daily life. The present study aimed to investigate which psychosocial and environmental factors are associated with walking, cycling, public transport (train, tram, bus, metro) and passive transport (car, motorcycle, moped) over short distances (maximum eight kilometres) among older adolescents (17-18 years), to school and to other destinations.

Methods: 562 older adolescents completed an online questionnaire assessing socio-demographic variables, psychosocial variables, environmental variables and transport to school/other destinations. Zero-inflated negative binomial regression models were performed.

Results: More social modelling and a higher residential density were positively associated with walking to school and walking to other destinations, respectively. Regarding cycling, higher self-efficacy and a higher social norm were positively associated with cycling to school and to other destinations. Regarding public transport, a higher social norm, more social modelling of siblings and/or friends, more social support and a higher land use mix access were positively related to public transport to school and to other destinations, whereas a greater distance to school only related positively to public transport to school. Regarding passive transport, more social support and more perceived benefits were positively associated with passive transport to school and to other destinations. Perceiving less walking and cycling facilities at school was positively related to passive transport to school only, and more social modelling was positively related to passive transport to other destinations.

Conclusions: Overall, psychosocial variables seemed to be more important than environmental variables across the four transport modes. Social norm, social modelling and social support were the most consistent psychosocial factors which indicates that it is important to target both older adolescents and their social environment in interventions promoting active transport. Walking or cycling together with siblings or friends has the potential to increase social norm, social modelling and social support towards active transport.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Bicycling / psychology*
Bicycling / statistics & numerical data
Female
Health Behavior*
Humans
Male
Perception
Residence Characteristics / statistics & numerical data*
Social Environment*
Socioeconomic Factors
Transportation / statistics & numerical data*
Walking / psychology*
Walking / statistics & numerical data

Grants and funding

Hannah Verhoeven is supported by Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (FWO, http://www.fwo.be/en) (GA11111N). Dorien Simons is supported by a FWO fellowship (11U8114N). Jelle Van Cauwenberg is supported by a FWO fellowship (11N0313N). Delfien Van Dyck is supported by a FWO post-doctoral research mandate (FWO12/PDO/158). Corneel Vandelanotte is supported by a Future Leader Fellowship from the National Heart Foundation of Australia (ID: 100427). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.