Background

Cycling is a source of physical activity that is feasible and beneficial to health, yet is underutilized by youth in many countries. Bike gifting and education programs are sometimes delivered to youth to support cycling. This study aimed to assess impacts of a bike education program that involved earning a bike (called Earn-a-Bike) on children's time spent cycling and attitudes and perceptions of cycling.

Methods

The Earn-a-Bike program was delivered after school to 38 5th graders living in low-income urban communities, at three different schools. Participants wore global positioning systems (GPS) trackers to provide objective measurements of time spent cycling before and after the program. Participants also completed a pre and post survey and parents completed a post survey on perceptions and attitudes. Statistical models tested changes in time spent cycling and survey responses.

Results

Time spent cycling increased from 12.4 to 21.5 min per week (68% increase; F[1, 23.7] = 6.49; p = .018), with similar increases observed between boys and girls and across schools. 59% of trips occurred on the weekends and 27% occurred in the evenings on weekdays, and student survey data corroborated this information. Students reported that the top reasons they participated in the program were to learn about bike safety (66.7%) and to learn how to take care of a bike (66.7%). Parents had positive attitudes/perceptions of the program (85–100% agreement with positive statements).

Conclusions

Bike education programs that result in the child earning a bike appear promising for increasing the currently low rates of cycling and active transportation in youth, though multilevel strategies are likely needed to support larger increases in cycling.

中文翻译：

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“骑自行车赚钱”自行车教育计划对儿童骑车时间的影响

背景

骑自行车是一种可行且有益于健康的身体活动来源，但在许多国家中，年轻人并未充分利用。有时会向青年提供自行车赠与和教育计划，以支持骑自行车。这项研究旨在评估一项自行车教育计划的影响，该计划涉及赚取一辆自行车（称为“ Earn-a-Bike”）对儿童骑自行车的时间以及骑自行车的态度和看法的影响。

方法

“课外赚钱”计划是在放学后向三所不同学校的38位生活在低收入城市社区的5年级学生提供的。参与者佩戴了全球定位系统（GPS）跟踪器，以客观地衡量该计划前后的骑车时间。参与者还完成了事前调查和事后调查，而父母也完成了关于观念和态度的事后调查。统计模型测试了骑行时间和调查响应时间的变化。

结果

骑车花费的时间从每周的12.4分钟增加到21.5分钟（增加68％； F [1，23.7] = 6.49； p = .018），男孩和女孩之间以及整个学校的观察到的类似增加。59％的旅行发生在周末，而27％的旅行发生在工作日的晚上，学生调查数据证实了这一信息。学生报告说，参加该计划的首要原因是了解自行车安全性（66.7％）和学习如何保养自行车（66.7％）。父母对计划有积极的态度/看法（85-100％同意并带有肯定的陈述）。

结论

尽管可能需要采取多层次的策略来支持自行车的大幅度增加，但导致孩子赚钱的自行车教育计划有望提高目前青少年的单车率和积极的交通运输。