Role of maternal non-transport pro-environmental behaviors in adolescents’ travel-to-school mode choices

This study investigates in UK context the relationship between adolescents’ choice of sustainable transport modes (e.g. active transport like walking or cycling and public transport like buses or subways) for their journey to school and maternal non-transport pro-environmental behaviors, such as energy conservation and environmentally friendly purchases, as well as its temporal changes. Data from waves 4 and 10 of the UK Understanding Society survey were separately analyzed using multinomial logistic regression to explore the relationship between frequency of mothers’ non-transport pro-environmental behaviors and adolescents’ sustainable transport to school. Additionally, to understand changes in the strength of this relationship over time, a regression analysis was conducted examining the interaction of mothers’ non-transport pro-environmental behaviors with the survey year. Findings indicate substantial correlations between an array of variables including adolescents’ age, ethnicity, mothers’ occupational and transport behaviors, the number of cars owned by the household, and the nature of residence (urban vs rural), with the adolescents’ active or public transport choice to school, consistently across both waves. As the primary focus of the study, a positive relationship between mothers’ non-transport pro-environmental behaviors and adolescents’ public transport to school is found, although the strength of this relationship declined over time. Importantly, more easily observable mothers’ non-transport pro-environmental behaviors holds a stronger strength of correlation with adolescents’ use of public transport to school, compared to maternal psychological factors like pro-environmental attitudes. Hence, encouraging a range of sustainable behaviors among mothers is crucial to promote adolescents’ public transport to school.