Do parents support e-bike use among teenagers, and why? Evidence from Vietnam

Objectives

Habituating young generations to using green modes is critical to forming sustainable transportation development. However, we do not know what enables or deters e-bike use among teenagers in developing countries. This study, set in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, seeks to answer two research questions: (1) how much do teenagers use e-bikes and why, and (2) how much do parents support further e-bike use among teenagers?

Methods

The current study relies on a survey of 832 parents of older teenagers (about half of whom use e-bikes). Exploratory factor analysis is applied to derive latent psychological variables before binary and ordinal logit regression models are estimated to explore the factors that affect teenagers’ actual use of e-bikes and their parents' support for e-bike use.

Results

The prevalence of e-bike use is 52%. Teenagers are more likely to use e-bikes, and be supported in this choice, when their parents believe that e-bikes are useful and safe. Parents care a great deal about their children's preferences around travel modes. A positive attitude towards e-bikes and an encouraging social circle lead to more e-bike use among teenagers and more parental support for e-bike use. Environmental awareness only predicts parental support for e-bikes use while perceived ease of use is positively associated with actual use by teens. Older teenagers are less likely to use e-bikes.

Conclusions

Our findings can assist government agencies in adopting appropriate policies to sustain the use of e-bikes among teenagers. More research is needed to validate the findings of this study in other settings. Future studies should employ longitudinal data from representative samples of teens and/or parents.