The landscape of potential harm: Understanding parents' perceptions of the built environment and what this means for their decisions about their child's mode of travel to school in the City of Worcester, MA

The confirmed beneficial relationship between physical activity and health and growing concern over generally low levels of physical activity among individuals, both in the U.S. and abroad, has generated much interest in how to increase adults' and children's physical activity via participation in the activities of everyday life. In this context, the built environment has come into sharp focus as a potentially important contributor to reduced levels of daily physical activity. The association between the built environment and adults' physical activity is fairly well understood, there is, however, still much we do not know or understand about this association for children. This research explored parents' decision making as a mediating variable of the association between children's travel to school and the built environment—both objective and perceived—that shapes those decisions. A qualitative research design that privileged open-ended questions was used to collect and analyze data from four focus groups and 26 in-depth interviews with parents of students attending public middle schools in Worcester, Massachusetts. The results show that when parents think about the built environment in the context of their children traveling to school, the built environment becomes more than just something that is tangible; it takes on meaning as a "landscape of potential harm" to parents for their children's safety. While parents most frequently identify traffic and stranger-danger as sources of risk that shape their perception of this landscape, this research revealed that parents' social networks, the media, and their own childhood influences why parents view the built environment as part of a "landscape of potential harm" and influences parents' perception of current traffic and stranger-danger as sources of risk to their child's personal safety. Deciding how their children travel to school can be a complex process. While some parents make their decision based on a single factor other parents decide by considering multiple factors. The most complex decision-making process was for children who ride the school bus; the least complex was for children whose parents drive them to school. In particular, this research found that parents' perceptions are framed by more than just their experiences with the immediate built environment. Thus, efforts to change parents' perceptions must be tackled from many directions. Addressing only issues within the built environment without a partnership with media or a conversation about social networks will be less likely to effect positive change in perceptions, and ultimately be less helpful in increasing children's daily active travel to school.