Research on active travel among children and adolescents in China is growing but remains dominated by cross-sectional, self-reported studies, highlighting the need for stronger designs and measures to generate decision-ready evidence.
Key Findings
Results
Only 16 studies met inclusion criteria out of 6,178 records screened, indicating a limited evidence base for active travel among children and adolescents in China.
Five databases were searched: Web of Science, PubMed, SPORTDiscus, MEDLINE, and ERIC, from inception to 1 December 2025.
Only quantitative studies in English examining active travel among Chinese children and adolescents were included.
The low yield (16 of 6,178 records) underscores the nascent state of this research field in China.
Results
Publications on active travel in China among youth have increased notably in recent years, with 75.0% of included studies appearing from 2017 to 2023.
75.0% of the 16 included studies were published between 2017 and 2023.
This temporal clustering suggests growing research interest in the topic in recent years.
Despite the increase, the overall volume of studies remains small.
Results
The vast majority of studies used cross-sectional designs, with only one longitudinal study identified.
93.8% of included studies were cross-sectional.
Only one study (6.3%) used a longitudinal design.
No quasi-experimental or intervention studies were identified.
The predominance of cross-sectional designs limits causal inference about active travel and health outcomes.
Results
Travel behavior was predominantly measured through self-report, with very limited use of device-based measurement and no device-based capture of travel modes.
87.5% of studies relied on self-reported measures of travel behavior.
Device-based measures were used to capture physical activity in only 12.5% of studies.
None of the studies (0%) used devices to capture travel modes.
This reliance on self-report raises concerns about measurement accuracy and comparability across studies.
Results
Studies primarily focused on children and adolescents in urban settings, with limited representation of rural or mixed contexts.
81.3% of studies focused exclusively on urban settings.
Only 18.8% of studies spanned mixed urban-rural samples.
No studies focused exclusively on rural populations.
This urban bias limits generalizability given China's large rural population.
Results
By research topic, the most common focus was on correlates of active travel, followed by health or physical activity outcomes, and then prevalence.
56.3% of studies examined correlates of active travel.
43.8% assessed health or physical activity outcomes associated with active travel.
25.0% reported active travel prevalence.
Individual, family, and built-environment factors were among the correlates examined.
Mixed findings on fitness benefits were noted, suggesting outcome selection and study design are critical considerations.
Discussion
The review identified multiple gaps in the literature, including absence of mental health outcomes, lack of intervention studies, and absence of standardized measures.
No studies examined mental health as an outcome of active travel.
No rigorous evaluations of multicomponent or infrastructure interventions were identified.
Standardized, device-based measures for capturing travel modes were absent from all studies.
The review calls for longitudinal or quasi-experimental designs to generate causal evidence.
Equity-focused sampling across urban-rural contexts was identified as a priority for future research.
What This Means
This research suggests that while interest in studying how children and adolescents get to school and other destinations by walking or cycling in China is growing, the body of scientific evidence is still very small and methodologically limited. Out of nearly 6,200 research records examined, only 16 studies qualified for inclusion. Most of these studies asked participants to simply report their own travel habits rather than using objective tracking tools, and nearly all used a snapshot-in-time design rather than following participants over time. Research was also heavily concentrated in cities, leaving rural areas largely unstudied.
The studies that do exist have looked at what factors are associated with active travel (such as individual, family, and neighborhood characteristics), whether active travel is linked to physical activity or health outcomes, and how common active travel is among Chinese youth. However, findings on fitness benefits were mixed, and no studies examined mental health outcomes or tested the effectiveness of programs or infrastructure changes designed to increase active travel.
This research suggests that the field needs stronger study designs—such as tracking children over time or testing real-world programs—along with better measurement tools like GPS devices or accelerometers that can objectively record how children travel and how active they are. Future studies should also include children from rural areas and consider a broader range of health outcomes, including mental health. These improvements would help produce the kind of reliable evidence that policymakers need to make decisions about promoting active travel among children and adolescents in China.
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Kong F. (2026). A scoping review of children's and adolescents' active travel in China.. Frontiers in public health. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1771411