Bikeability cycle training: a route to increasing young people's subjective wellbeing? A retrospective cohort study

Increasing the population's subjective wellbeing is an explicit aim of current UK government policies. The wellbeing of children and young people in the UK is deteriorating, and less than half of them meet national physical activity guidelines, despite the demonstrable benefits of physical activity for wellbeing. Hence, it is important to identify economically viable and effective public health interventions to increase young people's physical activity, and consequently, their wellbeing. Bikeability cycle training may be such an intervention.

205 young people aged 11-18 years in UK secondary schools completed an online survey about their subjective wellbeing, their active travel behaviour, and their physical activity levels. They also indicated whether they had undertaken Bikeability Level 2 cycle training when they were between 9 and 11 years of age; retrospective groups were formed on this basis. Their parents/carers (hereafter, 'parents') reported their own cycle training status, their active travel behaviour, and their satisfaction with their living circumstances, both at the time of the survey and when their child was 10 years old (Bikeability Level 2 cycle training is delivered to 9-11-year-olds). After screening, complete datasets from 201 young person-parent dyads were retained for analysis.

Continuous data were analysed via t tests, ANOVAs and nonparametric equivalents; categorical data were analysed using chi-square tests. One hundred-and-thirteen young people who had completed Bikeability Level 2 cycle training reported greater subjective wellbeing than the 88 individuals who had not, on two established measures of wellbeing. They were also more likely to make journeys by cycling and walking, although there were no between-group differences in self-reported moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, sedentariness, nor attitudes towards cycling. Young people who cycled at least once a week reported greater wellbeing than those who never cycled or who only did so once or so a year. Parents who had completed cycle training cycled more frequently than their untrained counterparts, although no differences in walking frequency emerged. Young person and parent attitudes towards cycling were correlated, as were parents' satisfaction with their current living circumstances and the young people's subjective wellbeing.

The present data suggest that Bikeability Level 2 graduates are more likely to report greater subjective wellbeing, and to travel by cycling or walking, than those who did not complete Bikeability training. Given the multiple benefits that active travel may confer to a wellbeing economy, these findings warrant further investigation.