TY - JOUR
T1 - Children's active commuting to school
T2 - An interplay of self-efficacy, social economic disadvantage, and environmental characteristics
AU - Lu, Wenhua
AU - McKyer, E. Lisako J.
AU - Lee, Chanam
AU - Ory, Marcia G.
AU - Goodson, Patricia
AU - Wang, Suojin
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements This study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Grant ID 64634), with contributions from the Texas A & M University School of Public Health, The University of Texas School of Public Health, Texas Health Institute, and Live Smart Texas. The open access publishing fees for this article have been covered by the Texas A & M University Online Access to Knowledge (OAK) Fund, supported by the University Libraries and the Office of the Vice President for Research. The authors thank Young-Jae Kim for preparation of data set and Jingang Miao for assistance with data analysis. The authors also acknowledge the work of other individuals that are involved in the overall management of the T-COPPE project, both at Texas A & M University and The University of Texas School of Public Health.
Funding Information:
This study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Grant ID 64634), with contributions from the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, The University of Texas School of Public Health, Texas Health Institute, and Live Smart Texas. The open access publishing fees for this article have been covered by the Texas A&M University Online Access to Knowledge (OAK) Fund, supported by the University Libraries and the Office of the Vice President for Research. The authors thank Young-Jae Kim for preparation of data set and Jingang Miao for assistance with data analysis. The authors also acknowledge the work of other individuals that are involved in the overall management of the T-COPPE project, both at Texas A&M University and The University of Texas School of Public Health.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Lu et al.; licensee BioMed Central.
PY - 2015/2/28
Y1 - 2015/2/28
N2 - Background: Active commuting to school (ACS) can promote children's physical activity and may help prevent childhood obesity. Previous researchers in various disciplines, e.g., health, urban planning, and transportation, have identified various predictors of ACS. However, little research has been carried out into investigating the effect of self-efficacy on ACS. The purpose of this study is to investigate the roles of children's and parents' self-efficacy in children's ACS, controlling for sociodemographic and objective environmental characteristics. Methods: This study is part of the Texas Childhood Obesity Prevention Policy Evaluation (T-COPPE) project, which includes data from 857 parent/child pairs from 74 schools who lived within two miles of school in Texas. Measures included children's usual modes of commuting to school, participants' sociodemographics, perceived self-efficacy toward ACS, sources of children's self-efficacy, school settings, and objective environmental constraints. Multilevel structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the hypothesized pathways using Mplus 7.0. Results: Around 18% of the children were active commuters. Two sources of children's self-efficacy were identified, i.e., emotional states (β = 0.36, p < 0.001) and social modeling (β = 0.28, p < 0.01). Compared with children's self-efficacy (β = 0.16, p < 0.001), parents' self-efficacy (β = 0.63, p < 0.001) had a stronger influence on children's ACS. Participants' social economic disadvantage (β = 0.40, p < 0.001), environmental constraints (β = -0.49, p < 0.001), and school setting (β = -0.17, p = 0.029) all had statistically significant direct effects on children's ACS. Conclusions: Future initiatives should consider both parents' and children's self-efficacy in developing strategies for promoting children's ACS. Social disadvantage and environmental constraints also need to be addressed for effective interventions. The work reported here provides support for the continuing exploration of the role of self-efficacy in children's ACS.
AB - Background: Active commuting to school (ACS) can promote children's physical activity and may help prevent childhood obesity. Previous researchers in various disciplines, e.g., health, urban planning, and transportation, have identified various predictors of ACS. However, little research has been carried out into investigating the effect of self-efficacy on ACS. The purpose of this study is to investigate the roles of children's and parents' self-efficacy in children's ACS, controlling for sociodemographic and objective environmental characteristics. Methods: This study is part of the Texas Childhood Obesity Prevention Policy Evaluation (T-COPPE) project, which includes data from 857 parent/child pairs from 74 schools who lived within two miles of school in Texas. Measures included children's usual modes of commuting to school, participants' sociodemographics, perceived self-efficacy toward ACS, sources of children's self-efficacy, school settings, and objective environmental constraints. Multilevel structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the hypothesized pathways using Mplus 7.0. Results: Around 18% of the children were active commuters. Two sources of children's self-efficacy were identified, i.e., emotional states (β = 0.36, p < 0.001) and social modeling (β = 0.28, p < 0.01). Compared with children's self-efficacy (β = 0.16, p < 0.001), parents' self-efficacy (β = 0.63, p < 0.001) had a stronger influence on children's ACS. Participants' social economic disadvantage (β = 0.40, p < 0.001), environmental constraints (β = -0.49, p < 0.001), and school setting (β = -0.17, p = 0.029) all had statistically significant direct effects on children's ACS. Conclusions: Future initiatives should consider both parents' and children's self-efficacy in developing strategies for promoting children's ACS. Social disadvantage and environmental constraints also need to be addressed for effective interventions. The work reported here provides support for the continuing exploration of the role of self-efficacy in children's ACS.
KW - Active commuting to school
KW - Environment
KW - Self-efficacy
KW - Social economic disadvantage
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U2 - 10.1186/s12966-015-0190-8
DO - 10.1186/s12966-015-0190-8
M3 - Article
C2 - 25889664
AN - SCOPUS:84928752867
SN - 1479-5868
VL - 12
JO - International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
JF - International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
IS - 1
M1 - 29
ER -