IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i24p13125-d700846.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

School Bag-Related Factors and Their Implications for Walking and Cycling to School among New Zealand Adolescents

Author

Listed:
  • Sandra Mandic

    (School of Sport and Recreation, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, Private Bag 92006, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
    AGILE Research Ltd., Wellington 6012, New Zealand
    Centre for Sustainability, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand)

  • Kaisa Kentala

    (Centre for Sustainability, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand)

  • Margaretha Liliana Situmorang

    (Department of Medicine, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand)

  • Mohammad Lutfur Rahman

    (School of Surveying, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand)

  • Kimberley King

    (Centre for Sustainability, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand)

  • Enrique García Bengoechea

    (Physical Activity for Health Research Cluster, Health Research Institute, Department of Physical and Sport Sciences, University of Limerick, V94 T9PX Limerick, Ireland
    Research and Innovation Unit, Sport Ireland, D15 PN0N Dublin, Ireland)

  • Ann-Maree Fox

    (Centre for Sustainability, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand)

  • Ricardo Oliveira

    (Institute of Physical Education and Sports, University of Rio de Janeiro State, Rio de Janeiro 20550-013, Brazil)

  • Kirsten J. Coppell

    (Department of Medicine, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand)

Abstract

Excessive school bag weight may be a modifiable barrier to active transport to school. This study examined correlates of school bag weight and adolescents’ perceptions of excessive school bag weight for walking and cycling to school among New Zealand adolescents living in diverse settlement types. Adolescents ( n = 1512; 15.0 ± 1.3 years) completed a questionnaire and had their bag weight ( n = 1190) and body weight ( n = 1038) measured. Adolescents using active transport and rural adolescents had lighter school bags compared to their counterparts. One-third of adolescents reported excessive school bag weight for walking (31.2%) and cycling (37.2%) to school. Positive correlates of relative school bag weight were female gender (regression coefficient (95% CI): 0.53 (0.13, 0.93)), and underweight (2.21 (1.39, 3.02)), whereas negative correlates were Māori ethnicity (−0.87 (−1.41, −0.32)), overweight (−1.84 (−2.35, −1.34)) and obesity (−3.57 (−4.26, −2.87)), and school location in small urban areas (−2.10 (−4.19, −0.01)), and rural settlements (−3.58 (−5.66, −1.49)). Older adolescents, females, those with greater relative school bag weight, and those experiencing school bag-related pain symptoms and/or fatigue were more likely to report excessive school bag weight for both walking and cycling to school. Future initiatives should target reducing excessive school bag weight, particularly in female and urban adolescents.

Suggested Citation

  • Sandra Mandic & Kaisa Kentala & Margaretha Liliana Situmorang & Mohammad Lutfur Rahman & Kimberley King & Enrique García Bengoechea & Ann-Maree Fox & Ricardo Oliveira & Kirsten J. Coppell, 2021. "School Bag-Related Factors and Their Implications for Walking and Cycling to School among New Zealand Adolescents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-15, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:24:p:13125-:d:700846
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/24/13125/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/24/13125/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Candace Currie & Saoirse Nic Gabhainn & Emmanuelle Godeau, 2009. "The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children: WHO Collaborative Cross-National (HBSC) Study: origins, concept, history and development 1982–2008," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 54(2), pages 131-139, September.
    2. Mohammad Lutfur Rahman & Tessa Pocock & Antoni Moore & Sandra Mandic, 2020. "Active Transport to School and School Neighbourhood Built Environment across Urbanisation Settings in Otago, New Zealand," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-15, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David S. Evans & Anne O’Farrell & Aishling Sheridan & Paul Kavanagh, 2023. "Social Connectedness and Smoking among Adolescents in Ireland: An Analysis of the Health Behaviour in Schoolchildren Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(9), pages 1-11, April.
    2. Nielsen, Line & Koushede, Vibeke & Vinther-Larsen, Mathilde & Bendtsen, Pernille & Ersbøll, Annette Kjær & Due, Pernille & Holstein, Bjørn E., 2015. "Does school social capital modify socioeconomic inequality in mental health? A multi-level analysis in Danish schools," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 35-43.
    3. Timo-Kolja Pförtner & Bart Clercq & Michela Lenzi & Alessio Vieno & Katharina Rathmann & Irene Moor & Anne Hublet & Michal Molcho & Anton Kunst & Matthias Richter, 2015. "Does the association between different dimension of social capital and adolescent smoking vary by socioeconomic status? a pooled cross-national analysis," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 60(8), pages 901-910, December.
    4. De Clercq, B. & Vyncke, V. & Hublet, A. & Elgar, F.J. & Ravens-Sieberer, U. & Currie, C. & Hooghe, M. & Ieven, A. & Maes, L., 2012. "Social capital and social inequality in adolescents’ health in 601 Flemish communities: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 202-210.
    5. Gabriel Fernandez de Grado & Virginie Ehlinger & Emmanuelle Godeau & Catherine Arnaud & Cathy Nabet & Nadia Benkirane-Jessel & Anne-Marie Musset & Damien Offner, 2021. "Changes in tooth brushing frequency and its associated factors from 2006 to 2014 among French adolescents: Results from three repeated cross sectional HBSC studies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-12, March.
    6. Petr Badura & Erik Sigmund & Andrea Madarasova Geckova & Dagmar Sigmundova & Jan Sirucek & Jitse P van Dijk & Sijmen A Reijneveld, 2016. "Is Participation in Organized Leisure-Time Activities Associated with School Performance in Adolescence?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(4), pages 1-13, April.
    7. Fumarco, Luca & Baert, Stijn, 2018. "Younger and Dissatisfied? Relative Age and Life-satisfaction in Adolescence," GLO Discussion Paper Series 278, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    8. Néboa Zozaya & Laura Vallejo, 2020. "The Effect of the Economic Crisis on Adolescents’ Perceived Health and Risk Behaviors: A Multilevel Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-14, January.
    9. Bíró, Éva & Dezső, Dóra & Sándor, János & Ádány, Róza, 2018. "Inequalities in Hungarian adolescents' health, health behaviour and well-being, based upon the results of a cross-sectional survey at settlement level, using the Health Behaviour in School-aged Childr," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 15-20.
    10. William Pickett & Valerie Michaelson & Colleen Davison, 2015. "Beyond nutrition: hunger and its impact on the health of young Canadians," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 60(5), pages 527-538, July.
    11. De Clercq, Bart & Pfoertner, Timo-Kolja & Elgar, Frank J. & Hublet, Anne & Maes, Lea, 2014. "Social capital and adolescent smoking in schools and communities: A cross-classified multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 81-87.
    12. Michal Molcho & Aoife Gavin & Devon Goodwin, 2021. "Levels of Physical Activity and Mental Health in Adolescents in Ireland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-12, February.
    13. Rachel McMillan & Michael McIsaac & Ian Janssen, 2016. "Family Structure as a Correlate of Organized Sport Participation among Youth," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(2), pages 1-12, February.
    14. Marina Carvalho & Cátia Branquinho & Margarida Gaspar Matos, 2021. "Cyberbullying and Bullying: Impact on Psychological Symptoms and Well-Being," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(1), pages 435-452, February.
    15. Gina Martin & Joanna Inchley & Candace Currie, 2019. "Do Drinking Motives Mediate the Relationship between Neighborhood Characteristics and Alcohol Use among Adolescents?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-19, March.
    16. Candace Currie & Dorothy Currie & Leonardo Menchini & Chris Roberts & Dominic Richardson, 2011. "Comparing Inequality in the Well-being of Children in Economically Advanced Countries: A methodology," Papers inwopa651, Innocenti Working Papers.
    17. Yi-Ching Lin & Chung-Ying Lin, 2018. "Minor Symptoms Talk: How Children React to Encountered Bullying," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(6), pages 1755-1768, December.
    18. Itai Danielski & Åsa Svensson & Kerstin Weimer & Lena Lorentzen & Maria Warne, 2022. "Effects of Green Plants on the Indoor Environment and Wellbeing in Classrooms—A Case Study in a Swedish School," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-23, March.
    19. Fumarco, Luca & Baert, Stijn, 2019. "Relative age effect on European adolescents’ social network," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 318-337.
    20. K. Levin & C. Currie, 2014. "Reliability and Validity of an Adapted Version of the Cantril Ladder for Use with Adolescent Samples," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 119(2), pages 1047-1063, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:24:p:13125-:d:700846. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.