Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Active Travel To School: Policies And Attitudes Of School And District Leaders

2010; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 42; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1249/01.mss.0000384312.23716.7b

1530-0315

Anna E. Mathews, Delores Pluto, Olga Ogoussan, Jorge A. Banda,

Transportation Planning and Optimization

When promoting active travel to school, it is important to consider school and district policies as well as attitudes of school and district administrators. PURPOSE: To develop a better understanding of 1) the proportion of districts and schools with walking or cycling policies; 2) how these policies are being communicated; and 3) the attitudes of school principals and district officials towards active travel to school. METHODS: School principals and district officials in South Carolina participated in the School Travel Survey. The School Travel Survey was developed by developed by the University of South Carolina Prevention Research Center, in partnership with the S.C. Department of Transportation, S.C. Department of Education, S.C. Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity, and the Physical Activity Policy Research Network. Frequency distributions and Chi-squared tests were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Three hundred fourteen persons responded to the survey (53.2% response rate). Sixty-five percent of district officials reported having a clear position about students walking to school, 80.0% of which were supportive. Seventy-two percent of principals reported having a clear position about walking to school, 67% of which were supportive. These positions were most commonly communicated either orally or through memos or other written documentation rather than through official, written policies or directives. Respondents who personally supported walking to school were more likely to believe that walking to school benefited students' health (c2 = 8.82, df = 1, p =.003) and academic performance (c2 = 14.87, df = 1, p <.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Promotion of walking to school should encourage schools and districts to develop official, written directives or policies. Promotional efforts may benefit from linking active travel to academic performance and health.