Equity Considerations in Active School Travel Interventions

Active school travel has benefits for children’s physical and mental health, academic achievement, and the environment. Underscoring active school travel is children’s independent mobility, defined as their ability to travel around their community without adult supervision. Interventions have shown some success in reversing declining trends in active school travel and independent mobility. However, little is known about how interventions have varying impacts on different subgroups of children. This thesis identifies ways to increase equity in active school travel interventions by investigating how equity is currently considered in interventions and gendered disparities in children’s ability to engage in independent mobility. This thesis includes a systematic review of active school travel interventions and a quantitative investigation of differences in determinants of independent mobility between boys and girls. Findings have implications for future research and practice among intervention facilitators and evaluators, public health practitioners, policymakers, educators, and school administrators