Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 12, 2026

Using a Virtual Reality Walking Simulator to Investigate Pedestrian Behavior
Published on: June 9, 2020
Predictors of children's active commuting to school: an observational evaluation in 5 U.S. communities
Jason A Mendoza1, David Cowan, Yan Liu
1Dept of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine and the Center for Child Health, Behavior, and Development at Seattle Children's Research Institute.
Background:
Few reports examined long term predictors of children's active commuting to school (walking or cycling to school, ACS).
Purpose:
To identify predictors of ACS over 1 school year among a sample of children with relatively high rates of ACS.
Methods:
Parents were surveyed in September 2010 (Time 1) and April 2011 (Time 2). The dependent variable was children's commuting mode to school (active versus passive). Independent variables included: 1) parents' outcome expectations (from Social Cognitive Theory: the expected risks/benefits for their child doing ACS), 2) distance to school, 3) participation in an adult-led walk to school group, 4) temperature, and 5) child demographics. Generalized mixed-models estimated odds ratios for ACS (n = 369 or 49.7% of Time 1 respondents).
Results:
Males (OR = 2.59, 95% CI [1.57-4.30]), adult-led walk to school group participation (OR = 1.80, 95% CI [1.14-2.86]), parents' outcome expectations (OR = 1.26, 95% CI [1.14-1.39]), temperature (OR = 1.03, 95% CI [1.01-1.07), distance to school (OR = 0.23, 95% CI [0.14-0.37]), and Latino ethnicity (OR = 0.28, 95% CI [0.12-0.65]) were associated with ACS.
Conclusions:
Programs and policies sensitive to parents' concerns (eg, adult-led walk to school groups) and targeting Latinos and girls appear promising for increasing ACS.
Related Concept Videos
Active Transport
Primary active transporters, like Na+, K+ and -ATPase, directly utilize ATP to move ions across the membrane. These transporters play significant roles in various physiological processes. For instance, Na+, K+ and -ATPase maintain...
Observational Studies
There are three types of observational studies – Prospective, retrospective, and cross-sectional.
Prospective Study
Prospective studies, also known as longitudinal or cohort studies, are carried out by collecting future data from groups sharing similar characteristics. One example of...
Naturalistic Observations
Data Collection by Observations
An astronomer viewing the motion and brightness of stars in the sky and recording the data is an example of observational data collection. A botanist recording...
Study Designs in Epidemiology
Observational studies are those where the researcher does not intervene but rather observes natural variations. They include cross-sectional, cohort, and case-control studies.
Factors Affecting Activity Coefficient
The activity coefficient value for an ion is close to one when the solution has almost zero ionic strength, i.e., when the solution shows close to ideal behavior. As the ionic strength of the solution increases from 0 to 0.1 mol/L, a decrease in the...

