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Chapter 8 - How Does Families’ Daily Mobility between Home and School Change with the Trottibus, a Walking School Bus Program in Quebec, Canada?
- Edited by Zoe Moody, University of Teacher Education Valais, Switzerland and Université de Genève, Ayuko Berchtold-Sedooka, Université de Genève, Sara Camponovo, Université de Genève, Philip D. Jaffé, Université de Genève, Frédéric Darbellay, Université de Genève
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- Book:
- School Journey as a Third Place
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 14 November 2023
- Print publication:
- 07 March 2023, pp 171-186
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
The journey from home to school is one of the most frequent commutes in kids’ life, starting as soon as four years old in many countries. Accordingly, much research has been done in the past decades, addressing various dimensions of these journeys, from pedestrian injuries, to the preferred mode of transportation and their related physical (in)activity, to pollution exposure on the way. Using a case study in Québec, a province of Canada, this chapter aims to better understand the impacts of an active transportation initiative – the Canadian Cancer Society’s (CCS) walking school bus (WSB) programme on families’ daily mobility. The chapter is divided in four parts. The first two look at the literature on the decline of active transportation to school and initiatives to reverse it, including WSB programmes around the western world. The third part presents the results from the case study, while the last section briefly introduces a few insights related to this significant topic: the journey to school as a third space.
The Decline of Active Transportation to School
Although the potential benefits associated with using non-motorised modes of transportation for travel to and from school, walking to school has declined since the 1970s, especially in western countries. In the United States, from 1969 to 2009, the percentage of trips walked or biked to school dropped from 41% to 13% according to the National Personal Transportation Survey data (McDonald et al. 2011). In Toronto, the most populated city in Canada, the walking mode share for school trips declined from 53% to 43% between 1986 and 2006 for children between 11 and 13 years (Buliung et al. 2009). Similar trends were observed in Sydney, Australia, where 58% of younger children (5–9 years old) walked to school in 1971, a proportion reduced to 26% in the 1999–2003 Household Travel Survey (van der Ploeg et al. 2008). More recently, a study in four European territories (Czech Republic, Norway, Scotland and Wales) found stable rates of active transport (walking, biking) to school between 2006 and 2018, a reassuring trend despite variations between countries (55% to 30% on average) (Haug et al. 2021).
five - Approaches to teenage motherhood in Québec, Canada
- Edited by Anne Daguerre, Corinne Nativel
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- Book:
- When Children Become Parents
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 14 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 01 November 2006, pp 91-114
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Summary
Introduction
A number of recent Québec policy initiatives in such areas as vocational integration, school attendance, social services and family support services have targeted young mothers under the age of 20. The circumstances of those young women contrast sharply with those of older women, who are opting to start a family later or even forego children altogether. Indeed, the low fertility rate among Québec women stirs regular debates. Why then, does early parenthood pose a problem in need of special attention?
This is the question that this chapter seeks to address. It provides a discussion of early pregnancy and motherhood as a ‘social problem’ through an exploration of the literature and of the latest statistics. The analysis will be set in the broader framework of changing social policies in Canada and Québec. It will be shown that early motherhood cuts across a set of specific issues and circumstantial factors, creating a novel situation that largely accounts for the interest it creates.
Teenage pregnancy and motherhood: a social problem?
Does becoming pregnant in adolescence and keeping the child represent a problem? The literature on teenage pregnancy and motherhood published year after year yields no simple answer to this question.
Three lines of argument fuel the debates over teenage pregnancy and motherhood in Québec. First, there is the two-pronged debate between those who interpret the statistics as a cause for concern on the ground that the situation shows no signs of significant subsiding over time and those who emphasise other survey findings that reveal a set of problem behaviours associated with this phenomenon. Second, questions arise as to causality and consequences, that is, are these events the cause of subsequent problems or simply occurrences along a predetermined walk of life? Third, there are attempts to allocate rights and responsibilities, particularly those that fall to the adolescent female and society. This discussion is part of the broader process of redefining family and work values in Canadian and Québec society, which is reflected in the evolution of social policy.
Alarming statistics
The Canadian province of Québec has a total population of 7.5 million inhabitants. In 2001, close to 9,400 females under the age of 20 became pregnant, with the older age group (18-19) accounting for most of those pregnancies (ISQ, 2003).