Perceived parental barriers to children's walking to school in a sprawled city: A case study for Najran City, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Introduction

Children's daily physical activity plays a major role in their health and well-being; it can also help them maintain a healthy weight. Walking to and from school is the most common form of physical activity that provides an opportunity for students to be active every day. However, walking to school recently declined sharply, and most students depend mainly on motorized modes. Parental barriers to walking to school are crucial to promote walking to school.

Method

This study examines parental barriers to walking to school in Najran, Saudi Arabia using binary logistic regression. The study analyses data collected from 1218 parents who completed an online questionnaire to understand the major barriers discouraging students from walking to school.

Results

The results showed 81% of school students commuted by motorized modes, while only 19% walked to school. The descriptive analysis showed that the most common barriers reported by parents were dangerous traffic conditions, more accessible and more convenient motorized modes, lack of sidewalks, no other children to walk with, dangerous crosswalks on the routes to school, dropping off on the parent's way to work, and long distance to school, respectively. Applying binary logistic regression also indicated that the probability of a student walking to school is affected negatively by long distance, absence of sidewalks, and dropping on the parent's way to work.

Conclusions

Understanding the perceived parental barriers to walking to school can help practitioners and policymakers to develop some future interventions that aim to better promote walking to school, such as establishing new schools and distributing them equitably, implementing complete and safe pedestrian infrastructure, increasing some social support, and developing educational interventions for parents and children describing the benefits of walking to school.