active travel; children; country; cycling; generation; Adult; Brazil; Child; Humans; Spain; Surveys and Questionnaires; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Parents; Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Abstract :
[en] Background: Learning to cycle is an important milestone for children, but the popularity of cycling and the environmental factors that promote the development and practice of this foundational movement skill vary among cultures and across time. This present study aimed to investigate if country of residence and the generation in which a person was born influence the age at which people learn to cycle.
Methods: Data were collected through an online survey between November 2019 and December 2020. For this study, a total of 9,589 responses were obtained for adults (self-report) and children (parental report) living in 10 countries (Portugal, Italy, Brazil, Finland, Spain, Belgium, United Kingdom, Mexico, Croatia, and the Netherlands). Participants were grouped according to their year of birth with 20-year periods approximately corresponding to 3 generations: 1960-79 (generation X; n = 2,214); 1980-99 (generation Y; n = 3,994); 2000-2019 (generation Z; n = 3,381).
Results: A two-way ANOVA showed a significant effect of country, F (9,8628) = 90.17, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.086, and generation, F (2,8628) = 47.21, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.122, on the age at which individuals learn to cycle. Countries with the lowest learning age were the Netherlands, Finland and Belgium and countries with the highest learning age were Brazil and Mexico. Furthermore, the age at which one learns to cycle has decreased across generations. There was also a significant country x generation interaction effect on learning age, F (18,8628) = 2.90, p < 0.001; however, this effect was negligible ( ηp2 = 0.006).
Conclusions: These findings support the socio-ecological perspective that learning to cycle is a process affected by both proximal and distal influences, including individual, environment and time.
Disciplines :
Education & instruction
Author, co-author :
Cordovil, Rita; Centro Interdisciplinar de Estudo da Performance Humana, Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Mercê, Cristiana; Centro Interdisciplinar de Estudo da Performance Humana, Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal ; Departamento de Atividade Física e Saúde, Escola Superior de Desporto de Rio Maior, Instituto Politécnico de Santarém, Rio Maior, Portugal
Branco, Marco; Centro Interdisciplinar de Estudo da Performance Humana, Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal ; Departamento de Atividade Física e Saúde, Escola Superior de Desporto de Rio Maior, Instituto Politécnico de Santarém, Rio Maior, Portugal
Lopes, Frederico; Departamento de Desporto e Saúde, Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Catela, David; Centro de Investigação em Qualidade de Vida, Escola Superior de Desporto de Rio Maior, Instituto Politécnico de Santarém, Rio Maior, Portugal
Hasanen, Elina; Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
Laukkanen, Arto; Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
Tortella, Patrizia; Department of Art, Music and Movement, Faculty of Education, Free University of Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy
Fumagalli, Guido; Department of Diagnostics and Public Health, Center for Research on Motor Development in Infancy, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
Sá, Cristina; Departamento de Ciências Do Movimento Humano, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Santos, Brazil
Jidovtseff, Boris ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Unités de recherche interfacultaires > Research Unit for a life-Course perspective on Health and Education (RUCHE)
Zeuwts, Linus; Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
De Meester, An; Department of Physical Education, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, United States
Bardid, Farid; School of Education, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Fujikawa, Ricardo; Real Centro Universitario Escorial Maria Cristina, Madrid College of Chiropractic, Madrid, Spain
Veldman, Sanne; Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam University Medical Center (Amsterdam UMC), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands ; Health Behaviour and Chronic Diseases and Methodology, Amsterdam Public Health, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Zlatar, Silvija; Kindergarten Matije Gupca, Zagreb, Croatia
Estevan, Isaac; AFIPS Research Group, RIIDASS Network, Department of Teaching of Music, Visual and Corporal Expression, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
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