Children walking to school: Parent perceptions of environmental and psychosocial influences

Background and Aims: Children's declining physical activity has attracted attention from those concerned with the health and well-being of the young. The present study aims to determine if the extent of walking to and from a school with an active participation program differed from that in another school without a program. Method and Results: Data from 21 parents of Grade 7 children from School A, sourced from a previous study, were compared with data from parents of Grade 7 children in School B, collected using the same questionnaire. No significant difference in the mean number of days walked to (t = 0.098, P = 0.92) or from school (t = 0.251, P = 0.80) was identified. Conclusions: This small-scale project suggests that a mélange of variables has the potential to influence children's incidental activity levels