The Association Between Adolescent Active Commuting to School and Parent Walking Behavior: The FLASHE Study

Purpose To examine the relationship between adolescent active commuting to school (ACS; walking or biking to/from school) and parent walking activity. Design Cross-sectional Setting US nationwide online surveys Sample 1367 parent-adolescent (12-17 years) dyads among the Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health, and Eating (FLASHE) study participants (29.4% response rate) Measures Online surveys asked about adolescent ACS and parent walking activity in the past week. Adolescents who reported ACS at least once in the past week were categorized as engaging in ACS. Parent walking frequency was categorized into 0-2, 3-5, and 6-7 days. Analysis Logistic regression analysis was conducted to compare the probability of adolescent ACS by parent walking activity, adjusted for sociodemographic factors and adolescent-, parent-, and neighborhood-level covariates. Results 28.5% of adolescents engaged in ACS at least once in the past week. Compared to 0-2 days/week of parent walking activity, ORs for adolescent ACS for 3-5 and 6-7 days/week of parent walking activity were 1.98 (95% CI=1.38-2.87) and 1.81 (1.23-2.68), respectively. In stratified analyses by parent and adolescent sex, father-son dyads presented the strongest association between adolescent ACS and parent walking 3-5 and 6-7 days/week (ORs=4.17 [1.46-11.91] and 3.95 [1.45-10.77], respectively). Conclusions Adolescents with parents who engaged in walking activity >= 3 days/week were more likely to actively commute to school. Parent walking activity may have positive intergenerational effects on adolescent ACS and physical activity.

Automated summary

This study aimed to examine the relationship between adolescent active commuting to school (ACS) and parent walking activity. The results showed that adolescents whose parents engaged in walking activity for at least 3 days/week were more likely to actively commute to school. The strongest association was found in father-son dyads.