Reliability and validity of destination-specific barriers to walking and cycling for youth

Abstract

Objective

To investigate the psychometric properties of a new measure of barriers youth encounter while walking to specific destinations and to validate the measure with self-reported walking to these destinations.

Methods

In 2005 in Boston, Cincinnati and San Diego, parents of youth (n = 289, aged 5–18) and adolescents (n = 189, aged 12–18) completed surveys in a two-week test–retest study design. Seventeen items assessed participant agreement with the influence of different barriers to walking or cycling to three types of destinations: 1) parks, 2) shops and restaurants and 3) school. Participants also reported whether or not they walked or cycled to the destinations at least once a week.

Results

Principal components analysis identified three barrier subscales labeled ‘environmental’, ‘psychosocial/planning’, and ‘safety’, which were consistent across the three destinations and two respondent groups. Internal consistency for the subscales was good (alphas > .70) and two-week test–retest reliability was moderately high (ICCs .56–.81) for both parents and adolescents for all destinations. Psychosocial and environmental barriers were higher in adolescents who did not walk (p < .003). Parents of younger children reported high environmental barriers.

Conclusion

The three barrier subscales to active commuting to multiple destinations demonstrated good reliability and some initial evidence of validity.

Introduction

Walking to destinations, such as school, is an important contributor to youth physical activity levels. In this paper we use the terms youth to refer to 5–18year olds, children to refer to 5–11year olds and adolescents to refer to 12–18year olds. Studies have found that children who walk to school have higher activity levels than those who travel by car (Alexander et al., 2005, Heelan et al., 2005, Burdette and Whitaker, 2005) and are less likely to be overweight (Gordon-Larsen, Nelson, and Beam, 2005). Unfortunately, there has been a sharp decline in this activity (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2006, Ham et al., 2005).

Several recent studies have investigated the role of the built environment, such as residential and intersection density, in relation to walking to school (Braza et al., 2004, Gielen et al., 2004, Ewing et al., 2004). It has also been shown that perceptions of the local environment and parental concerns are related to children's active transportation (Carver et al., 2005). Even in walkable neighborhoods, however, parental concerns (traffic, safety, convenience) were a factor in predicting youth commuting (Kerr et al., 2006). “Safe routes to schools” programs have shown that both educational and environmental change is necessary to promote walking (Collins and Kearns, 2004). These previous studies can be interpreted from a socio-ecological model perspective of behavior change that emphasizes the multiple levels of influence on behavior (Sallis et al., 2006).

While many previous studies have shown that active commuting to school contributes to youth activity levels, active transportation to other youth-oriented destinations such as parks has been understudied (Frank et al., 2007). Although schools are an important active commuting destination, visited on most days of the week, youth may have to attend a school that is not within reasonable commuting distance. Other destinations may be within commuting distance, but it is not known if barriers are destination-specific or if one set of items can assess barriers to multiple potential walking destinations. It is therefore important to test whether barriers to walking or cycling vary by destination.

This study aimed to test the reliability and validity of a new survey instrument developed to measure psychosocial and perceived environmental barriers to walking and cycling to three local destinations. Since perceived barriers and concerns have been shown to be related to youth's walking behavior, even after controlling for the environment (Kerr et al., 2006), it is important to have a reliable and valid instrument to measure this construct. Previous survey studies only focused on a few items, did not report the reliability of the surveys used or reported poor reliability, or were concerned with walking to school without considering other important active commuting destinations for youth (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2006, Kerr et al., 2006, Evenson et al., 2006). Most questioned parents rather than adolescents themselves (Carver et al., 2005) and only female adolescents have been surveyed in the past (Evenson et al., 2006). This study surveyed parents of youth 5–18years old and adolescents aged 12–18years old.