Copyright @ 2006 by the American College of Sports Medicine. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. Active Commuting to School: Associations with Environment and Parental Concerns JACQUELINE KERR 1 , DORI ROSENBERG 1 , JAMES F. SALLIS 1 , BRIAN E. SAELENS 2 , LAWRENCE D. FRANK 3 , and TERRY L. CONWAY 1 1 San Diego State University, San Diego, CA; 2 Cincinnati Children_s Hospital and Health Center, Cincinnati, OH; and 3 University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA ABSTRACT KERR J., D. ROSENBERG, J. F. SALLIS, B. E. SAELENS, L. D. FRANK, and T. L. CONWAY. Active Commuting to School: Associations with Environment and Parental Concerns. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc.,Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 787–794, 2006. Purpose: This study examined the association of objective and perceived neighborhood environmental characteristics and parent concerns with active commuting to school, investigated whether parental concerns varied by environmental characteristics, and compared the association of the perceived environment, parental concerns, and objective environment on the outcome active commuting to school. Methods: Randomly selected parents of children (aged 5–18 yr), in neighborhoods chosen for their variability in objectively measured walkability and income, completed questionnaires about their neighborhood environment, concerns about children walking to school, and children_s behavior (N = 259). Objective measures of the environment were available for each participant and each neighborhood. Logistic regression analyses were used to investigate the relationships among environment, parental concerns, and walking or biking to or from school at least once a week. Results: A parental concerns scale was most strongly associated with child active commuting (odds ratio: 5.2, 95% CI: 2.71–9.96). In high-income neighborhoods, more children actively commuted in high-walkable (34%) than in low-walkable neighborhoods (23%) (odds ratio: 2.1, 95% CI: 1.12–3.97), but no differences were noted in low-income neighborhoods. Parent concerns and neighborhood aesthetics were independently associated with active commuting. Perceived access to local stores and biking or walking facilities accounted for some of the effect of walkability on active commuting. Conclusion: Both parent concerns and the built environment were associated with children_s active commuting to school. To increase active commuting to school, interventions that include both environmental change and education campaigns may be needed. Key Words: PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, CHILDREN, ADOLESCENTS, WALKING, BARRIERS W alking or cycling to school appears to contribute to higher levels of total physical activity and improved weight status in youth (1,14). Several studies have shown that children who walk to school are more active than those who do not (8,26). In countries where active commuting to school is the norm, walking to school accounts for nearly half of total physical activity (27). Transportation surveys, however, show the proportion of U.S. children walking to school has declined steeply. From 1977 to 1995, a 37% decrease was seen in walking or biking to school by American children (16). One study found that only 19% of children walked to or from school at least once a week during the preceding month, whereas 6% biked (6). A survey in Britain found that 50% of children between the ages of 4 and 11 yr were driven regularly to schools that were within a mile of their homes (23). Many different reasons are thought to account for low levels of walking to school. Parental safety concerns such as travel distance, traffic, and crime have been associated with inactive commuting (3,6,25). One report calculated that perceived traffic danger presented barriers to walking and biking to school for 20 million U.S. children (7). In one study, a high proportion of those parents who reported no barriers to their child actively commuting to school, also reported that their children walked to school (7). Barriers to active commuting to school, including parental concerns, need to be better understood. In addition to parental concerns, physical environmental factors may be associated with children actively commuting to school. Environmental correlates of children_s overall physical activity have been documented (22), so it is reasonable to expect environmental variables to be related to specific types of physical activity such as walking and biking to destinations. Timperio et al. (25) found that having to cross several roads was associated with less walking or cycling to local destinations for children 10–12 yr of age. It is well established that ‘‘walkable’’ neighborhoods with destinations near homes, interconnected streets, and higher residential densities are associated with more walking and cycling for transportation among adults (19). In one study, Address for correspondence: Jacqueline Kerr, Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, 3900 5th Ave, #310, San Diego, CA 92103; E-mail: jkerr@projects.sdsu.edu. Submitted for publication July 2005. Accepted for publication October 2005. 0195-9131/06/3804-0787/0 MEDICINE & SCIENCE IN SPORTS & EXERCISE Ò Copyright Ó 2006 by the American College of Sports Medicine DOI: 10.1249/01.mss.0000210208.63565.73 787