Cycle Training Courses ‘Benefit Kids Into Adolescence’
If you want your offspring to have good cycling behaviour as
they grow up – and continue the trend well into adulthood – consider sending
them off on a bike training course when they’re in primary school.
New research from the
University of Bristol and experts from Children of the 90s has found that
youngsters who opted to take a National Cycle Proficiency Scheme course at a
young age continued the positive behaviours they learned as grown-ups.
Interestingly, they were more likely than their peers who
didn’t do such a course to bike to school (aged 14 and 16), own a bike helmet
(aged 14 and 16) have worn a helmet the last time they took their bike out
(aged 14) and worn high visibility clothing for children on their last bike
ride (aged 16).
However, irrespective of training, it was also found that
very few teenagers actually chose to wear reflective clothes while on their bikes.
They were more likely to have worn such items aged 16 than 14 but even at age
16, only around one in 15 said they wore it the last time they were cycling.
“While these are positive findings, we also found that many
teenagers don't wear a cycle helmet or hi-vis clothing, and few teenage girls
cycle even though the majority of them own a bike. There is therefore great
potential to increase cycling, and safe cycling behaviours, in young people,”
lead author Dr Alison Teyhan commented.
Children of the 90s is a longitudinal study of
parents and children, charting the health of some 14,500 families in the local
Bristol area since the 1990s in a bid to improve the health of future
generations.
Written by Ad Rank One at 20/06/2016