|
Abstract
|
BACKGROUND: Cycling to school is less common than walking among adolescents in many developed countries. In New Zealand, fewer adolescents prefer and intend to cycle to school compared with children. Development of cycling skills can improve cyclists' safety in traffic and help minimize cycling-related safety concerns. To examine long-term effects of cycle skills training, this study compared perceptions of cycling to school among 208 adolescents who participated in such training in primary and/or intermediate school with 231 non-participants.
Methods: Adolescents (n=439; age: 14.7±1.2 years; 50% female) from six secondary schools in Dunedin (New Zealand) completed an online survey as part of the BEATS Natural Experiment. Adolescents self-reported their travel modes to school; perceptions of cycling to school; and previous participation in school-based cycle skills training. Cycle skills training sessions were delivered at school following the New Zealand Transport Agency methodology and consisted of basic bicycle skills followed by exposure to riding on roads for those who progressed to that stage. Data were analysed using Chi-square, t-tests, and ANOVA.
Results: Few adolescents usually cycled to school (1-2%). Overall, 42% agreed that cycle skills training would make them safer to cycle to school and 24% would take such training at their school. Among participants, 30% reported that training made them feel more confident to cycle to school whereas 64% reported no such training effect. On average, participants had higher self-efficacy for cycling to school compared with non-participants (4.4±2.2 vs. 4.0±2.2; p=0.036). Among males, compared with non-participants, fewer participants reported cycling to school not being cool (1.6±0.8 vs. 1.9±1.0; p<0.023) and a greater proportion expressed support for school-based training (2.0±1.0 vs. 1.7±0.9; p=0.025). Among females, participants reported higher subjective norm (3.2±1.8 vs. 2.6±1.8; p=0.022) and higher self-efficacy for cycling to school (4.2±2.1 vs. 3.3±2.0; p=0.001) compared with non-participants. Participants with training in both primary and intermediate school had higher self-efficacy for cycling to school than non-participants and less frequently reported parental concerns for cycling to school compared with primary school-only participants and non-participants (all p<0.05).
Conclusions: Approximately one-third of adolescents reported increased confidence in cycling to school due to a cycle skills training programme. Participants also reported higher levels of self-efficacy for cycling to school than non-participants; some gender-specific differences were observed. Despite the limitations of the available data, the findings suggest that cycle skills training could be a useful strategy to improve self-perceptions and attitudes relative to cycling to school in adolescents.
Keywords: SR2S
Language: en |