An Active School Transport Instrument to Measure Parental Intentions: The Case of Indonesia

Abstract

An active school transport (AST) instrument to measure parental intentions in a developing country context with 11 latent constructs and 108 measuring items has been created as part of an integrated framework, including psychological and social cognitive constructs, perceived environmental constructs, and habit constructs. The purpose of the current study is to develop and carry out the initial validation of these construct items for measuring parental intentions to promote AST in the context of a developing country. Three experts assigned a content validity index (CVI) to the measurement items and evaluated them based on the item-CVI (I-CVI) and the scale-level-CVI (S-CVI). A pilot study was conducted to test the validity and reliability of the construct items in Palembang, Indonesia, with 34 parents of school-aged children returning the instruments to be analyzed using SPSS Version 23. It was discovered that 93 items were legitimate, since their R values were greater than 0.3, and it was determined that 11 constructs were reliable because the measured items revealed a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient range of 0.8–0.9 (very good) to >0.9. (excellent). This instrument met the requirements for good validity and reliability and thus, can contribute as a novel instrument to measure parental intentions towards AST, especially in developing countries in Asia, particularly Indonesia.

1. Introduction

Physical activity (PA) among children is on the decline worldwide, which poses a substantial risk to their health. As a result, interventions are required to raise the likelihood that children will reach the World Health Organization’s recommendation of engaging in 60 min of PA per day [1,2,3,4,5]. The overall prevalence of insufficient physical activity in some high-income Western countries is 72.0% in the United States, 76.3% in Canada, 79.9% in the UK, 76.6% in Spain, 89%, in Australia, and 88.7% in New Zealand. This inactivity is also prevalent in several countries in the Southeast Asian region, including Indonesia at 86.4%, and its neighbors, Singapore and Malaysia, with 76.3% and 86.2% [1], respectively. With 279.1 million people, Indonesia is the country with the highest population in the Southeast Asia region, making up 40% of the region’s total population [6]. This statistic regarding the inactivity of children will undoubtedly have consequences on the children’s well-being. Physical activity can be defined as any movement of the body that is produced by the skeletal muscles resulting in the expenditure of energy [7]. The term “physical activity” refers to all types of movement a person engages in, whether to move themselves to and from an activity, for recreation, or as part of an activity [7]. Children who participate in active school transportation (AST), often known as walking and cycling to school, have the opportunity to increase their physical activity levels [8,9]. Children obtain many benefits of AST, including a reduction in the risk of being overweight or obese [10,11,12,13]. Moreover, it also positively influences children’s mental and psychological health [14,15,16]. To promote AST as means of increasing PA levels, researchers studied the behavior of children and their parents regarding AST, especially in developed countries such as the United States, Canada, the UK, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand [17]. AST has long been a focus in developed countries, and this trend continues. This is attributed to concerns regarding the decline in cycling and walking to school as modes of transportation and the increase in obesity in children [18,19]. In contrast, this subject matter has not yet been thoroughly examined in developing countries, particularly Asia. In most regional studies, e.g., in India [20,21], Sri Lanka [22], Thailand [23], Malaysia [24], Pakistan [25], Bangladesh [26], and Indonesia [27], researchers are still attempting to understand the underlying factors that influence school transportation choices in general [20]. As an emerging country in Asia, Iran has begun focusing on active school transportation [28,29,30,31]. As a significant key in AST decision-making in children, parental involvement needs to be a primary focus of investigation when promoting AST [32,33].

Behavior towards AST is influenced by various complex factors related to each other at the individual, social, and environmental levels [34,35]. Multiple factors mentioned in the ecological model, including psychological and environmental factors, affect health behaviors such as AST [36,37]. However, few studies have used established psychological theories to understand the relationships between psychological factors regarding this issue [38]. The theory of planned behavior is a socio-psychological model commonly used to explain behavioral motivation, and it successfully explains the mechanism of AST [38,39,40,41]. TPB argues that intention is the main predictor that shapes individual behavior and is a mediator of attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) [42]. Further evidence from recent research reveals that attitudes, social support, parental perceptions, and perceived parental barriers toward AST influence their children’s mode of transportation to school [32,43,44,45,46]. Barriers to AST considered by parents are related to safety, distance to school, and built environment [32]. Self-determination theory [47] assumes that fulfilling basic psychological needs (BPNs), such as autonomy (the need to take responsibility for one’s actions), competence (the desire to achieve desired outcomes), and relatedness (the desire for a sense of connection with others) directly leads to an increase in positive behavioral outcomes such as interest, attitude, and intention. The SDT has been utilized extensively as a research framework concerning PA, whereas the utilization of BPNs in connection with AST is currently low [41]. Several previous studies have integrated TPB and BPNs to explain the mechanism of AST [48,49]. Environmentally nuanced factors directly or indirectly affect AST behavior [41,50,51]. In addition, habit has a significant effect on the behavior of AST [38] A research framework integrating psychological and social cognitive constructs (i.e., TPB, BPN) and perceived environmental factors to explain AST was first proposed in New Zealand [34]. Here, based on the findings from previous research in developed countries, the authors use the modified TPB as a combination model (TPB, BPNs, perceived environment, and habit) in measuring parental intentions in developing countries such as Indonesia. Due to the lack of understanding regarding parental intentions related AST in developing countries, it is crucial to investigate these psychological constructs within the context of these countries. Whether the items employed to evaluate psychological constructs in developed countries also meet the validity and reliability standards for application in contexts of developing countries. The current study aims to further create, refine, adjust, and initial items to validate constructs for measuring parental intentions to promote AST in developing countries.

This paper is organized into four sections: in the second section, the materials and research methodology are described. The third section discusses the results of the validity and reliability tests of the construct items. The last part, the fourth section, delivers the conclusions and suggestions of this study.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Context

The study was conducted in the city of Palembang, a developing-county community located to the south of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The city has a population of 1.6 million people, with an area of 400.61 km² and a population density of 4166 inhabitants/km² [52]. In Figure 1, the city of Palembang is divided into two parts, namely the Seberang Ilir and Seberang Ulu areas [52]. The Musi River is the longest river on the island of Sumatra and is among the ten longest rivers in Indonesia. A total of 962 schools, consisting of 488 elementary schools, 253 junior high schools, and 221 high schools, are spread across 18 sub-districts in Palembang [53]. These schools are made up of a total of 316,865 students, including 155,828 elementary school students, 76,870 junior high school students, and 84,167 high school students who travel to school every day [54]. The climate in the study area is tropical climate, consisting of dry and rainy seasons [55]. The dry season begins in April and ends in August, during which time the study is conducted. The region has no specific intervention to promote AST among school children.

2.2. Procedures and Measures

The design of the instrument to measure parental intention variables in this study includes four general procedures, namely: (1) conceptualization, (2) development, (3) expert review, and (4) pilot study (Figure 2). The procedure’s framework stems from modifications to instrument development and validation procedures carried out by researchers in various fields [56,57,58,59].

The first stage of the instrument development and validation procedure used in this study, namely conceptualization, consists of two fundamental steps before building a research instrument. The first step is to formulate a framework or model, followed by identifying and defining the construct of the proposed framework or model. In the second stage, the initial draft instrument is constructed by selecting, compiling, and adapting the items used as measuring indicators for the construction and the grading system of these items. In the third stage, the items that have been organized in the initial draft of the instrument are reviewed by experts. The review process includes language and culture adjustments, according to geographical contexts and the validity of the content of these items. The result of this stage is the acceptance, repair, or elimination of items for implementation in the next stage. In the fourth stage, the authors conduct a field test of the initial draft of the instrument extracted from the previous stage to assess the validity and absolute reliability of the measuring instrument.

2.2.1. Conceptualization

The conceptualization stage is the framework formulation that will be proposed to measure parental intentions toward the AST, construct identification, and definition. The authors conducted a systematic literature analysis to summarize key findings from past research to establish which constructs would be employed. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) has been successfully applied in previous efforts to understand AST behavior from a parental approach [60,61,62]. It has been shown in prior studies that habit has a significant and positive effect on all of the other latent variables of TPB [38,63]. Self-determination theory [64,65] is a well-known paradigm for analyzing the societal and individual factors that influence the involvement of children and adolescents in physical activity [66]. Moreover, the number of studies in the AST-specific setting has increased in recent years [67,68]. It has been established that perceived environmental barriers and perceived neighborhood environments are related to PA in developed countries, but little is known about them in the developing countries of Asia [36,69,70,71,72]. TPB is extended to include the constructs of habit, perceived environment, and the child’s psychological needs as parental barriers to encouraging AST.

2.2.2. Development

The items used to measure the constructions are selected, created, and modified in the development stage. A scoring system was utilized to quantify participant responses to the questions. Furthermore, an initial draft of the instrument was generated to initiate the subsequent stage.

• Theory of Planned Behavior Subscale

A questionnaire was constructed to test the TPB constructs (i.e., attitude, subject norm, description norm, perceived behavioral control, and intention) based on the methods of [73] and prior research on AST in children [23,38,41,74,75]. Attitude is measured by nine items (i.e., “If my child cycles/walks to school regularly, my child’s independence will grow well”). Subjective norm (SN) is measured by six items (i.e., “My best friends/My family/My co-workers/My neighbors/My spouse/My parents support me letting my child bike/walk to school”). Description norm (DN) is measured by six items (i.e., “My best friends/My family/My co-workers/My neighbors/My spouse/My parents will let their child bike/walk to school”). Nine items measure perceived behavioral control (PBC) (i.e., “I am confident that I can let my child bike/walk to school every day”). Intention is measured by six items (i.e., “I intend to let my child bike/walk to school every day in the upcoming school year”). A five-point Likert scale was used to gauge participant agreement (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree).

• Self Determination Theory Subscale

Prior studies have contributed to the involvement of certain items in these constructs [41,76]. The self-determination theory in the activity scale, which consists of twenty items, was utilized to measure autonomy (six items, e.g., “I feel that I have used the school travel mode of my choice”), competence (seven items, e.g., “I am proficient in cycling/walking to school”), and relatedness (seven items, e.g., “I feel very comfortable when I go to school with my friends.”). A five-point Likert scale was utilized by participants to report their levels of agreement.

• Perceived Environmental Barriers Subscale

The barriers to active transport to educational centers (BATACE) scale was developed to examine people’s perceptions of the environmental barriers that hinder the success of AST [77], according to recent research [41]. Perceived environmental barriers were measured by eighteen items (i.e., “Sidewalks or bike lanes are not available on the road along between the house-schools”). Each participant used a five-point Likert scale to report the degree to which they agreed with each statement.

• Perceived Neighborhood Environment Subscale

A participant’s neighborhood was defined as the region surrounding his or her residence that could be walked in 10–15 min, or roughly 1.5 kilometers [78,79]. The perceived neighborhood environment was evaluated using a Spanish adaptation of the ALPHA environmental questionnaire [78,79], along with a recent study [41]. Twenty-two items were used to measure this construct (i.e., “Due to the high volume of traffic in the neighborhood around where I live, walking is not recommended”). A five-point Likert scale was utilized by the participants to report the degree to which they agreed with each statement.

• Habit Subscale

Habit, as a determinant of intention and behavior in TPB, is studied since the constructs meet Ajzen’s criteria for utilizing determinants in other behavioral domains [80,81,82]. Habit also has a significant positive effect on the latent construct in the TPB of children’s school travel behavior [38]. This construct was measured by twelve items adapted from Verplanken and Orbell’s Self-Report Habit Index (i.e., “Cycling/walking on travel is something I frequently do”) [83]. A five-point Likert scale was also employed for this index.

2.2.3. Expert Review

A new investigation must be strictly evaluated to guarantee that an instrument is valid [84,85,86]. Quantitative methods are used to evaluate how well items relate to or reflect a particular domain, and content validity is one of the measures that can be obtained from these evaluations [85,86,87]. There are many methods to assess content validity. The content validity index (CVI), assessed by experts, is used in this study. As a strategy for validating the content of instrument construction, CVI is the method that has received the most significant attention from researchers, and it may be computed with the use of the Item-CVI (I-CVI) and the Scale-Level-CVI (S-CVI) [86,88]. The I-CVI is calculated by taking the number of experts rating each item as “very relevant” and dividing that number by the total number of experts. The values range from 0 to 1, and if the I-CVI for an item is more than 0.79, then it is relevant; if it is between 0.70 and 0.79, then it requires changes; and if it is less than 0.70, then it is removed [86,88]. Similarly, the S-CVI is computed using the number of items in an instrument that are rated “very relevant” [86,88]. A conservative method, the Average-CVI (S-CVI/Ave), was used to calculate the S-CVI in this study [86,88]. By dividing the total number of items by the sum of their I-CVIs, S-CVI/Ave is calculated to assess the cumulative content validity [86,88]. S-CVI/Ave demonstrates excellent content validity values greater than or equal to 0.9 [89]. Experts also make cultural or contextual adjustments to items adapted from previous studies. There were three experts who conducted the review process of the instrument items used in this study. The first is a professional statistician and consumer behavior expert. The second is a professional psychologist and lecturer. The third is a professional media communication expert. These experts each have more than ten years of experience in their fields. The selection of these experts was based on the consideration that this research deals with behavior related to psychology; moreover, the selection of the last expert was based on the need to evaluated the verbal communication used in construct items.

2.2.4. Pilot Study

A pilot study is an initial stage in the overall study protocol. A pilot study is typically performed on a smaller scale than the main study, and its primary purpose is to assist in the planning and adjustment of the full-scale study [90,91,92]. The preliminary trial, practice run, feasibility study, and small-scale study are commonly used to describe a pilot study [90,93]. The pilot study’s purpose is to gather the information that can be used to improve the project or determine its feasibility [94,95,96]. The pilot study is also a statistical test confirming the instrument’s validity and reliability for use in full-scale studies. Because testing the hypothesis is not the primary goal of a pilot study, the sample size is sometimes not estimated in these investigations [90]. Some studies propose more than 12 samples for each group, while others recommend over 30 samples for each group [90,97,98]. It is necessary to select a suitable sample size, not to provide adequate power for hypothesis testing, but to understand the practicability of participant recruiting or study design [90]. The pilot study was carried out from April 2022 to May 2022. A total of 50 instruments were distributed to participants, and 34 instruments were subsequently received for analysis using SPSS Version 23.

In order to establish the correct Pearson correlation coefficient (R table value), the degree of freedom (df) must be determined. The degree of freedom (df) was then set to 32, given that there were 34 study participants (degree of freedom = sample size − 2). The R table value for 32 degrees of freedom with a significance level of 0.05 is 0.307. Meanwhile, the standard of reliability follows the interpretation of Cronbach’s alpha coefficient range (<0.6 (weak); 0.6–0.7 (moderate); 0.7–0.8 (good); 0.8–0.9 (very good); >0.9 (excellent)) [99].

3. Results

3.1. Content Validity Index (CVI)

A summary of the expert review process is presented in Appendix A. The first column shows the constructs involved in the study. The second column describes the items used to measure each construct. There are 11 latent constructs with 108 items spread out over each construct. The third and the fourth columns indicate the CVI given by the expert and the I-CVI of each item. Three experts provide valuations of the relevance of the items. Three experts are required for content validation [100]. The fifth and last column interprets the I-CVI value of each item. Of 108 items assessed by experts, 96 items were rated as appropriate, 11 items needed revision, and 1 item was eliminated based on the reference I-CVI value range [86,88]. Items that required revision related to adjustments regarding local culture and language. The eleven items that needed improvement were five items of the attitude construct, four items of the perceived environmental barriers construct, and two items of the perceived neighborhood environment construct. While the eliminated item, included in the habit construct, was an ambiguous item in terms of language, and the experts agreed that it could not be used in the context of this study. After each item was revised and rejected according to the advice of experts, the total number of items to be tested for validity and reliability was 107. S-CVI calculated at the end of the table shows that the number 0.93 meets the established criteria, which means the validity of the content is excellent [89].

3.2. Validity and Reliability

The sociodemographic characteristics of this study’s participants are presented in

Table 1. Sociodemographic characteristics of participants (n = 34).

		%
Gender of parent
Male		55.9
Female		44.1
Age of parent
26–41	Millenial	58.8
42–56	Gen X	41.2
Education of parent
Middle school education		8.8
Higher education		91.2
Gender of child
Boy		64.7
Girl		35.3
Age of child
6–12		70.6
13–15		14.7
16–18		14.7
Distance to school
0–500 m		11.8
>500–1 km		11.8
>1–2 km		23.5
>2–3 km		17.6
>3 km		35.3
School Mobility
Escorted		82.4
Independent Mobility		17.6
School Mode of Transport
Public Transport		2.9
Private Vehicle		88.2
Bicycle		2.9
Walk		6.0

. The participants that returned the self-reported instrument comprised 34 parents with school-aged children, aged 6 to 18. Participants mainly consisted of men (55.9%), in the age range of 26–41—the Millennial generation group (58.8%)—dominated by higher education (91.2%). Children as school travelers mainly consisted of boys (64.7%), with an age range of 6–12 years (70.6%), or at the elementary school level. The characteristics of school trips are recorded in the form of distance to school, which is evenly distributed with a distance of more than 3 km (35.3%), and these children are mainly accompanied to school (82.4%), or are driven to school via private vehicles (motorbikes/cars) (88.2%).

Appendix B shows the final results of the calculation of the validity and reliability of each item from the constructs that have been compiled previously. The items resulting from expert reviews are clustered by type of constructs. Attitude construct (ATT), including nine items, primarily yielded item ATT9 R = 0.276 < 0.3 (R-table) and item ATT8 R = 0.248 < 0.3 R-table); this means that these two construct-forming items are not yet valid, so they need to be eliminated from the construct. Seven items of ATT have met the validity requirements (>0.3), and the value of Cronbach’s alpha = 0.875 (very good) indicates that ATT regarding these items is already reliable. At the beginning, subjective norm (SN) and description norm (DN) met the item validity requirements (>0.3), with each construct consisting of six items. The values of Cronbach’s alpha, both SN = 0.974 and DN = 0.977, are excellent and report that the SN and DN, along with all of their items, are reliable. After the PBC8 item R = 0.212 < 0.3 (r-table) was eliminated, the eight remaining items of the perceived behavioral construct (PBC) met the validity requirement (>0.3), with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.942 (excellent), indicating that the PBC and its items are reliable. Perceived environmental barriers (PEB), with eighteen measuring items, eliminate PEB15 R = 0.278 < 0.3 (R-table), so that the remaining items met the validity requirement (>0.3) and the reliability parameter of Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.944 (excellent). However, regarding the constructs relating to the environment, ten items of the perceived neighborhood environment (PNE) were eliminated: PNE1 R = 0.200, PNE2 R = 0.189, PNE3 R = 0.214, PNE4 R = 0.223, PNE6 R = 0.245, PNE7 R = 0.188, PNE8 R = 0.264, PNE9 R = 0.237 > 0.3 (R-table), and PNE5 relating to PNE8, and PNE17, to obtain validity values that meet the requirements (>0.3). PNE, with twelve items remaining, exhibits reliability, with the value of Cronbach’s alpha = 0.892 (very good). Habit (HBT) with 11 items, intention (INT) with six items, autonomy (ATN) with six items, and competence (COM) and relatedness (TLT) constructs, with seven items each, met the validity requirements (>0.3) without the elimination of any items. These last five constructs also achieved the value of excellent reliability.

4. Discussion

The validity and reliability of 11 constructs and 93 items are demonstrated through the use of an active school transport (AST) questionnaire to measure parental intentions in a developing country. The role of parents as representatives of children’s decision-makers in choosing transportation to school is significant [75]; therefore, the validity and reliability of the instrument scale to understand parents’ intentions to allow their children to cycle or walk to school are crucial, particularly in the context of developing countries.

The attitude construct is comprised of nine items from previous studies [23,41,75], that meet the criteria for validity and reliability in developed countries. Seven measurement items are consistent with prior research, but two do not match the criteria for the validity and reliability scale in the context of this study. Subjective norm involves an individual’s perception that most influential individuals believe that one should (or should not) undertake a particular activity. Descriptive norm refers to the perception that other people should (or should not) perform certain behaviors. In this analysis, regarding both the subjective norm and description norm, four measurement items were adapted from previous studies in developed countries [38,75], and the researchers modified two of these items. All items meet the criteria and confirm previous research. Perceived behavioral control is the degree to which individuals believe they are capable of or have control over performing specific behaviors. Only one of the nine proposed items [23,38,41,75] was deleted as a measurement item for this construct, as it did not meet the criteria. Intention as a behavioral mediator in TPB indicates a person’s readiness to perform a behavior. This study confirmed six items in the intention construct derived from testing in developed countries [75].

Perceived environmental barriers relate to the physical environment, social environment, and attitude environment in which we live, as well as the accessibility and social policies that can negatively or positively affect individual activity performance. Only one of the eighteen measurement items applied in Spain [41,77] was disqualified in this context.

Perceived neighborhood environment refers to the environment that can be reached within 10 to 15 min by foot from the residence [78,79]. This study adopted twenty-two measurement items of this construct from the Spanish study [41,78,79], and ten items were eliminated.

The habit construct consists of twelve measurement items tested in previous studies [83]; only one did not meet the criteria in this context.

The self-determination construct (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) as a construct that represents the child’s condition consists of twenty measurement items [41,76], all of which meet the criteria.

In this study, several limitations can be described. First, the sample used is a theoretical sample for the pilot study, and a minimum sample was not calculated. Second, this questionnaire only focuses on parents, without involving children. Future research is expected to use not only theoretical samples, but to also include minimum sample calculations. In addition, children can also be directly involved in determining the factors behind their school trips, especially in developing countries.

5. Conclusions

TPB has been successfully used for understanding parental intentions regarding AST behavior in developed countries. In this study, TPB is integrated with habit construct, perceived environmental barriers, perceived neighborhood environment, and self-determination theory to extend the established psychological theory in measuring intentions. These proposed constructs are used to create a unified instrument for understanding AST in developing countries, especially Indonesia. In this study, the authors proposed 11 constructs and 108 measurement items. A panel of experts evaluated the items in the constructs, resulting in the I-CVI > 0.79 and S-CVI/Ave > 0.9, validating the measurement instrument, with the inclusion of a few eliminations and adjustments. In this process, only one item was eliminated, and eleven items required revision. Validity and reliability tests were conducted on the constructs, and these items were validated by the previous procedure. In conclusion, 93 items were determined to be valid, based on their R values being more significant than 0.3, and the reliability of 11 constructs was determined based on the measurement items having a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient range of 0.8–0.9 (very good) or >0.9 (excellent). In conjunction with these findings, this study can contribute to the development of a validated instrument for measuring the psychological factors parents consider when deciding whether to allow their children to walk or cycle to school, particularly in developing countries in Asia.