IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i4p3806-d1073843.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Active Schools in Europe—A Review of Empirical Findings

Author

Listed:
  • Richard Bailey

    (Faculty of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts, UCSI University, Jalan Menara Gading, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia
    Centre of Research for Mental Health and Wellbeing, UCSI University, Jalan Menara Gading, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia)

  • Francis Ries

    (Physical Education and Sports, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Seville, 41013 Sevilla, Spain)

  • Claude Scheuer

    (European Physical Education Association, 8551 Noerdange, Luxembourg)

Abstract

Physical activity is an important part of children’s and young people’s healthy functioning, but evidence suggests many students are inactive to the extent that they are compromising their well-being. Traditionally, schools have played a minor role in contributing to physical activity, but it has held relatively low prestige. Some commentators have called for Whole-School or Active School approaches. Physical activity, in these models, is integrated into all aspects of school life. This article reports on a review of the most-cited elements of school-based physical activity promotion, assesses evidence of actual and potential contributions, and provides a tentative weight of evidence judgement for each component. A rapid reviewing methodology was followed, and the searches used a range of specialist academic databases (PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, SPORTdiscus, CINAHL Complete), Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and Academia.edu, restricted to 2010–2021. Six settings were found to have the potential to add physical activity time, although none suffices alone: Active Breaks; Active Homework; Active Learning; Active Recess; Active Transport; and School Sports. Active Schools offer a plausible solution to the problem of physical inactivity by adding moments of movement and integrating physical activity in all aspects of school life, underlining the need for school-level change, the consideration of stakeholder groups, and the social and physical environments of school.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Bailey & Francis Ries & Claude Scheuer, 2023. "Active Schools in Europe—A Review of Empirical Findings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-22, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:3806-:d:1073843
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/3806/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/3806/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Reid Ewing & Robert Cervero, 2010. "Travel and the Built Environment," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 76(3), pages 265-294.
    2. Breda, João & Jakovljevic, Jelena & Rathmes, Giulia & Mendes, Romeu & Fontaine, Olivier & Hollmann, Susanne & Rütten, Alfred & Gelius, Peter & Kahlmeier, Sonja & Galea, Gauden, 2018. "Promoting health-enhancing physical activity in Europe: Current state of surveillance, policy development and implementation," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(5), pages 519-527.
    3. Houshmand Masoumi & Martin van Rooijen & Grzegorz Sierpiński, 2020. "Children’s Independent Mobility to School in Seven European Countries: A Multinomial Logit Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-21, December.
    4. Jesús Martínez-Martínez & Susana Aznar & Sixto González-Víllora & Guillermo F. López-Sánchez, 2019. "Physical Activity and Commuting to School in Spanish Nine-Year-Old Children: Differences by Gender and by Geographical Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-10, December.
    5. João Martins & Adilson Marques & Élvio Rúbio Gouveia & Francisco Carvalho & Hugo Sarmento & Miguel González Valeiro, 2022. "Participation in Physical Education Classes and Health-Related Behaviours among Adolescents from 67 Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-16, January.
    6. Curtis, Carey & Babb, Courtney & Olaru, Doina, 2015. "Built environment and children's travel to school," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 21-33.
    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. Kai Zhao & Jinhan Guo & Ziying Ma & Wanshu Wu, 2023. "Exploring the Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity and Stationarity in the Relationship between Street Vitality and Built Environment," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440231, February.
    2. Mehzabin Tuli, Farzana & Mitra, Suman & Crews, Mariah B., 2021. "Factors influencing the usage of shared E-scooters in Chicago," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 164-185.
    3. John Stanley & Janet Stanley, 2023. "Improving Appraisal Methodology for Land Use Transport Measures to Reduce Risk of Social Exclusion," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-18, August.
    4. Marie Geraldine Herrmann-Lunecke & Cristhian Figueroa-Martínez & Francisca Parra Huerta & Rodrigo Mora, 2022. "The Disabling City: Older Persons Walking in Central Neighbourhoods of Santiago de Chile," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-19, September.
    5. Li, Jingjing & Kim, Changjoo & Sang, Sunhee, 2018. "Exploring impacts of land use characteristics in residential neighborhood and activity space on non-work travel behaviors," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 141-147.
    6. Ding, Chuan & Wang, Donggen & Liu, Chao & Zhang, Yi & Yang, Jiawen, 2017. "Exploring the influence of built environment on travel mode choice considering the mediating effects of car ownership and travel distance," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 65-80.
    7. Van Acker, Veronique & Ho, Loan & Stevens, Larissa & Mulley, Corinne, 2020. "Quantifying the effects of childhood and previous residential experiences on the use of public transport," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    8. Ding, Yu & Lu, Huapu, 2016. "Activity participation as a mediating variable to analyze the effect of land use on travel behavior: A structural equation modeling approach," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 23-28.
    9. Singleton, Patrick A. & Park, Keunhyun & Lee, Doo Hong, 2021. "Varying influences of the built environment on daily and hourly pedestrian crossing volumes at signalized intersections estimated from traffic signal controller event data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    10. Toşa, Cristian & Sato, Hitomi & Morikawa, Takayuki & Miwa, Tomio, 2018. "Commuting behavior in emerging urban areas: Findings of a revealed-preferences and stated-intentions survey in Cluj-Napoca, Romania," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 78-93.
    11. Liu, Yan & Wang, Siqin & Xie, Bin, 2019. "Evaluating the effects of public transport fare policy change together with built and non-built environment features on ridership: The case in South East Queensland, Australia," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 78-89.
    12. Regine Gerike & Caroline Koszowski & Bettina Schröter & Ralph Buehler & Paul Schepers & Johannes Weber & Rico Wittwer & Peter Jones, 2021. "Built Environment Determinants of Pedestrian Activities and Their Consideration in Urban Street Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-21, August.
    13. Chetan Doddamani & M. Manoj, 2023. "Analysis of the influences of built environment measures on household car and motorcycle ownership decisions in Hubli-Dharwad cities," Transportation, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 205-243, February.
    14. Jie Gao & Dick Ettema & Marco Helbich & Carlijn B. M. Kamphuis, 2019. "Travel mode attitudes, urban context, and demographics: do they interact differently for bicycle commuting and cycling for other purposes?," Transportation, Springer, vol. 46(6), pages 2441-2463, December.
    15. Malte Jetzke & Michael Mutz, 2020. "Sport for Pleasure, Fitness, Medals or Slenderness? Differential Effects of Sports Activities on Well-Being," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 15(5), pages 1519-1534, November.
    16. He, Mingwei & He, Chengfeng & Shi, Zhuangbin & He, Min, 2022. "Spatiotemporal heterogeneous effects of socio-demographic and built environment on private car usage: An empirical study of Kunming, China," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    17. Boukarta Soufiane & Berezowska-Azzag Ewa, 2020. "Exploring the Role of Socio-Economic and Built Environment Driving Factors in Shaping the Commuting Modal Share: A Path-Analysis-Based Approach," Quaestiones Geographicae, Sciendo, vol. 39(4), pages 87-107, December.
    18. Mouratidis, Kostas & Ettema, Dick & Næss, Petter, 2019. "Urban form, travel behavior, and travel satisfaction," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 306-320.
    19. Su, Rongxiang & Xiao, Jingyi & McBride, Elizabeth C. & Goulias, Konstadinos G., 2021. "Understanding senior's daily mobility patterns in California using human mobility motifs," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    20. Hamdi Lemamsha & Chris Papadopoulos & Gurch Randhawa, 2018. "Perceived Environmental Factors Associated with Obesity in Libyan Men and Women," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-16, February.

    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:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:3806-:d:1073843. 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.