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Journal of Transport & Health 26 (2022) 101370
2214-1405/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Addressing safety issues along the way to school: Qualitative
ndings from Jerash camp, Jordan
Enas Al-Najjar
a
, Nur S.A. Sukor
a
,
*
, Lina I. Shbeeb
b
a
School of Civil Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300, Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia
b
School of Construction Technology and Built Environment, Al Hussein Technical University, 11831, Amman, Jordan
ARTICLE INFO
Keywords:
Safe route to school (SRTS)
Refugee children
Focus group discussion
Sustainable development goals
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Despite the growing global interest in the safety of school children over the past
decade, the safety of school routes in vulnerable populations, such as those in refugee camps, has
not received enough attention from the global research community. Therefore, this qualitative
study contributes to the limited literature on this issue by attempting to shed light on the safety
challenges faced by schoolchildren aged 6–15 years old who travel independently inside refugee
camps.
Methods: Through a thematic analysis of the output of two focus group discussions involving
refugee parents in Jerash Camp in Jordan, the study identies key issues and threats that concern
parents in refugee camps regarding the safety and security of their children when walking to
school.
Results: The analysis of the FGDs yields three themes: (1) safety and security issues (2) factors
inuencing exposure to hazards; and (3) suggestions for safety improvement. It also generates
sub-themes related to safety and security issues such as trafc collision, crime risk and animal
attack. Other sub-themes that represent the factors associated with exposure to safety hazards
were grouped into four categories: built environmental factors, socio-cultural and economic
factors, demographic factors and behavioural factors. Suggestions for improving safety of school
routes included three main sub-themes, these are: providing a free transport service to school,
improving road infrastructure and pedestrian facilities; and providing adequate education to
increase awareness of safety issues.
Conclusion: This study highlights the critical level of safety and security inside refugee camps, and
thus draws the attention of international organisations and policymakers and emphasizes the
need for safety programmes intervention focusing on children in refugee camps.
1. Introduction
In line with the increasing global interest in sustainability issues, 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by all
member states of the United Nations in 2015, including SDG 11, which contains a specic target that focuses on achieving safety of
transport and mobility as one of the main priorities to protect the poorest and most vulnerable in society (Poku-Boansi et al., 2019;
Gautam et al., 2021). Since then, the safety of children in particular has increasingly become a major concern of transport planners and
* Corresponding author. Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), School of Civil Engineering, Engineering Campus, 14300, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang,
Malaysia.
E-mail addresses: enas_al_najjar@yahoo.com (E. Al-Najjar), cesabahiah@usm.my (N.S.A. Sukor).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Transport & Health
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jth
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2022.101370
Received 6 May 2021; Received in revised form 29 March 2022; Accepted 4 April 2022
Journal of Transport & Health 26 (2022) 101370
2
policymakers, as they tend to be the most vulnerable group among all road users (Ferenchak et al., 2019; McIlroy et al., 2019). In-
dependent travel among children increases their happiness and travel satisfaction, as they have a greater desire to explore and learn
about their environment as compared to adults (Waygood et al., 2019).
Among the independent mobility trips taken by children, the home–school journey can be considered the most important, as it
involves regular travel to a clearly specied location (school) on a daily basis (Loo and Lam, 2015). Therefore, increasing the safety and
security level of school routes is essential to encourage active travel among schoolchildren.
It is for the above reason that the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programme was designed and launched in 2004 in the U.S. with the
aim of encouraging active travel by providing a safe, fun and comfortable walking and cycling environment for schoolchildren
(Rodríguez et al., 2015; Stewart, 2011). While the SRTS programme has rapidly spread worldwide, there is still a noticeable absence of
similar safety measures in refugee camps.
At the time of writing, the most recent report, issued by Human Rights Watch in (2020) considers low levels of safety and security
inside camps to be a major barrier to educational attainment among refugees. Safety and security issues include trafc collisions,
violence, crime, and deteriorated infrastructure, all of which have been identied as signicant causes of the lack of safe and affordable
access to school in refugee camps (Bajwa et al., 2017; UNHCR, 2014). Nevertheless, an in-depth review of the literature revealed a lack
of sources and studies on the obstacles that refugee students face when travelling to and from school (Al-Najjar et al., 2019; Mcbride,
2018).
Therefore, this study attempts to contribute to the literature by shedding light on the safety challenges that face refugee students on
their way to school. To this end, two in-depth focus group discussions (FGD) were carried out among selected parents of schoolchildren
in Jerash camp in Jordan in order to ascertain the key issues of safety and security that refugee students encounter when going to
school. In the FGDs, mothers and fathers were able to share their experiences, concerns, and perceptions about the main safety threats
to their children on the daily trip to school. The main purpose of this article is to highlight the safety and security threats refugee
children may encounter during the school journey, and how parents of schoolchildren perceive safety and security inside refugee
camps. In addition, the main factors that led to the emergence of these threats will be investigated.
The next sections of this article are structured as follows: Section 2 covers the previous studies related to the issues, Section 3
describes the methodology, Section 4 presents the ndings, Section 5 reports the discussions, Section 6 shows the strength and lim-
itations of the study, and nally the conclusions of the study are summarized in Section 7.
2. Literature review
A vast body of research on schoolchildren’s safety has adopted parental perception of hazards as a reliable source of data, and
depicted parental concerns and beliefs about the surrounding environment as factors affecting the children’s travel behaviour and
mode choice (Huertas-delgado et al., 2017; Lee and Zhu, 2013; Mcarthur et al., 2014; Nikitas et al., 2019; Race et al., 2017; Seraj et al.,
2012). In the context of refugee camps, parental concerns about safety inside the camps have been identied as a critical deterrent for
refugees allowing children to walk to school (El-Khani et al., 2016).
Research on safety and security issues from a parental perspective in a variety of settings has revealed that a number of worries
inuence parents’ decisions about their children’s travel modes and behaviours. These include travel distance, fear of crime, trafc
safety, weather conditions and time of the day. This section aims to review these factors that have been reported by earlier scholars.
2.1. Travel distance
Among the various concerns related to children’s journey to school, travel distance has been found to have the strongest impact on
parents’ choice of travel mode and route (Smith et al., 2020; Florez and Muniz, 2014; Ikeda et al., 2018; Larsen et al., 2018; Meh-
dizadeh et al., 2017a; Potoglou and Arslangulova, 2017; Race et al., 2017; Yang et al., 2017). It has been reported that walking is
inversely correlated with each kilometre increase in distance to school by 67.1% (Leung and Loo, 2020). Parents’ concerns about travel
distance stem from the fact that long distance and travel time are associated with children’s exposure to external hazards on the way to
school, such as trafc collisions and crime (Buliung et al., 2017; Helbich, 2017; Rothman et al., 2014).
Researchers who have examined what constitutes an acceptable walking distance for schoolchildren are generally in agreement
that the distance depends on the age of the children. Nevertheless, there are some differences in dening what represents an acceptable
distance. For example, Potoglou and Arslangulova (2017) reported that active travel is positively associated with living within less
than 1 mile (1.6 km) from school, where children and adolescents who live more than 1 mile from school are, respectively, 2.3 times
and 3 times less likely to walk than those living less than 1 mile away from school. In a similar vein, Yang et al. (2017) found that
children under the age of 12 who live more than 2 miles (3.2 km) away from school are 26 times more likely to engage in active travel
than those who live less than 1 mile away. Meanwhile, Mehdizadeh et al. (2017a) considered a home-to-school distance of 1 mile as a
threshold for increased active travel to school, regardless of the age of the students.
On the other hand, Raoniar et al. (2019) dened a walkable distance to school as less than 0.6 miles (1 km) and found a positive
association between travel mode shift and increasing distance, where over 48% of parents strongly prefer motorised travel over
walking to school when the distance exceeds 0.6 miles. Another study recommended that a walkable distance should not exceed 0.9
miles (1.45 km) for children under 14 years old, whereas it stated that 1.9 miles (3 km) is an acceptable distance for older children and
adolescents to walk to school (Chill´
on et al., 2015). In contrast, another study suggested that for schoolchildren of all ages, a 2-mile
distance is acceptable as a walking distance, as long as no hazardous conditions exist in the neighbouring environment (Lee et al.,
2013).
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Journal of Transport & Health 26 (2022) 101370
3
In summary, based on the recent literature, an acceptable walking distance for children going to school ranges between 0.8 and 2
miles depending on the age group of the children (Hatamzadeh et al., 2017; Lee and Zhu, 2013; Raoniar et al., 2019).
2.2. Fear of crime
Some studies have explored the relationship between fear of crime and active travel rates to school, and in many cases, it takes
precedence over other barriers reported by parents. Parental fear of crime and their anxiety about the surroundings were also found to
be signicant factors for lower independent mobility rates among schoolchildren (Loo and Lam, 2015). Parental concerns about crime
include risk of abduction, interaction with strangers, and fear of harassment. In addition to fear of strangers, parents also frequently
cite bullying by other children as a great worry (Hong and Espelage, 2012; Mitchell et al., 2016). Sikhakhane et al. (2018) indicated
that bullying is a serious problem and has a negative impact on the wellbeing of children.
An increase of 1% in the crime rate was found to have as much inuence as a 0.06% reduction in the walking rate (Caros and Chow,
2020). However, some studies have concluded that when schoolchildren of ages (6–12) walk in groups or with adults, parents are
expected to have less safety concerns about crime (Ali et al., 2020; Corazza et al., 2020a; Garrard, 2017; Huertas-delgado et al., 2017;
Wang et al., 2014).
2.3. Trafc safety
Another issue that discourages parents from allowing their children to walk independently to school is the fear of their children will
be involved in trafc collisions and crashes. These worries have been statistically proven to have a basis in reality, as it has been found
that a high proportion of all trafc pedestrian fatalities are schoolchildren on their way to (or from) school (Banerjee et al., 2014;
Pojani and Boussauw, 2014; Rothman et al., 2014; Yu, 2015). For example, Caros and Chow (2020) noted that the trafc collision rate
among children has a three times stronger impact than crime in discouraging parents from allowing their children to walk alone to
school. Regardless of how short the distance, and despite general awareness of walking benets, trafc safety can be a solid deterrent to
commute actively to school (Corazza et al., 2020; Ikeda et al., 2018; Larsen et al., 2018; P. S. Lin et al., 2019; Mehdizadeh et al., 2017b;
Raoniar et al., 2019; Yu and Zhu, 2016). Furthermore, recent studies have found that parents of children of ages between 6 and 12
frequently reported concerns about trafc safety issues such as volume at intersections, while parents of older children (above 12)
reported the unsafe intersections in parallel with concerns about distance as the main barrier to active travel to school (Huertas--
delgado et al., 2017; Mathy & P, 2016). Trafc calming features, pavement, sidewalks, central reservations, trafc lights and zebra
crossings have been found to be positively associated with a low occurrence of collisions and have a signicant effect on enhancing
both pedestrian and motorist safety (Cabrera-Arnau et al., 2020; Hatamzadeh et al., 2017; Smith et al., 2020; Larsen et al., 2018;
Stewart et al., 2014).
2.4. Weather conditions and time of the day
Poor weather conditions and the time of the day that children are out walking to and from school were found as another factor
inhibiting independent children mobility (Chaufan and Yeh, 2012; Holden et al., 2020; Hsu and Saphores, 2013; Ikeda et al., 2018).
Several studies reported bad weather as one of the main reasons for choosing non-active modes to go to school (Hinckson, 2016;
Kontou et al., 2020). In their study, Zhai et al. (2019) used a model that integrates high-resolution GIS weather data with pedestrian
collision data to prove the signicant association between weather conditions (i.e. high temperature and presence of rain) with higher
pedestrian crash severity. Nevertheless, researchers have tended to concentrate on the inuence of other environmental variables over
weather concerns, as they believe that weather conditions are less predictable, less modiable and cannot be controlled (Easton and
Ferrari, 2015a; Hsu and Saphores, 2013).
Meanwhile, Hatamzadeh et al. (2017) suggested that time of the day affects the decision by elementary and middle-school students
to select walking as a travel mode to school. In a later study, Hatamzadeh (2019) provided evidence that correlates travel distance to
the time of the day, where students are found sensitive to distances of more than 0.25 miles (400 m) in the morning period, but they do
not mind walking up to 0.5 miles (800 m) in the afternoon period.
In conclusion, the literature on parents’ perceptions of the dangers and difculties that their children may face on their way to
school shows that travel distance, weather conditions, trafc conditions and fear of crime are key concerns that prevent parents from
permitting their children to walk to school (Ahlport et al., 2008; Buliung et al., 2017; Chaufan and Yeh, 2012; Hsu and Saphores, 2013;
Stewart et al., 2012).
However, the above ndings are based on studies conducted in the general population and are not specic to refugee students in the
camp context. Hence, this study attempts to address this research gap by investigating the issues and inuences that affect school-
children’s safety in refugee camps.
3. Material and methods
3.1. Study area and context
Jordan is a developing country located in the Middle East and hosts the second largest number of refugees in the world, with a total
number of approximately 2.9 million refugees from Palestine, Syria, Iraq and other neighbouring countries (UNHCR, 2014). Repetitive
E. Al-Najjar et al.
Journal of Transport & Health 26 (2022) 101370
4
inows of refugees have created a strain on the national infrastructure, and there is high competition for job opportunities and other
services, especially given Jordan’s limited resources and its small land area of around 89,342 km
2
.
The camps that serve as homes for Palestinian refugees are the oldest camps in Jordan. These camps, which were initially meant to
be temporary, have evolved over seven decades into permanent settlements that are characterised by poor living conditions as well as
health, social and environmental problems (Alnsour and Meaton, 2014).
Jerash camp (also known as Gaza camp) hosts more than 30,000 Palestinian refugees from the Gaza strip. It occupies an area of just
0.75 km
2
and is located in the municipality of Mia’rad, less than 10 km from Jerash city centre. The inhabitants of this camp have not
been granted Jordanian citizenship, as is the case for most Palestinian refugees in Jordan, and this lack of recognition had a direct
effect on their daily life. In addition, refugees in Jerash camp are not only more likely to be poor, but also more than three times as
likely to be among the very poorest and most destitute of all refugees in Jordan. It is for these reasons that Jerash refugee camp was
selected as a suitable case for this in-depth study on the safety of refugee schoolchildren when travelling to and from school (Tiltnes
and Zhang, 2013).
Since the camp’s establishment in 1968, education, relief and health services have been provided by the United Nations Relief and
Work Agency (UNRWA). A quick appraisal of the education in Jerash camp shows that there are three school buildings, two of which
are inside the camp, one serving female students aged between 6 and 15 years old (Jerash Camp Girls’ School) and the other is for boys
aged between 6 and 12 years old (Jerash Camp Boys’ School). The third (Manshieh School) is located outside the camp’s boundaries
and serves boys aged between 13 and 15 years old. These buildings are shared by ve schools that work on the basis of a dual-shift
schedule serving over 5000 refugee children from the camp and surrounding areas (see Fig. 1).
Loo and Lam (2015) claimed that populated neighbourhoods, promote more active and vibrant community (Loo and Lam, 2015),
and as is the case in most refugee camps, Jerash camp experiences a high level of daily pedestrian activity due to its low economic
prole and the crowded service centre. Other factors include poor infrastructure, the absence of pedestrian facilities (such as side-
walks, crossing lines, trafc lights, bridges, and tunnels) as well as poor drainage and asphalt surface condition. This atmosphere is
associated with higher exposure to risks when out and about and creates an urgent need to enhance safety and security in the camp and
to improve walking conditions, especially for schoolchildren (Al-Najjar et al., 2019).
3.2. Sample and recruitment
This study adopts a qualitative approach that employs the FGD method because of its ability to test in depth the reality of the
assumptions related to a specic phenomenon and collect data based on the participants’ perceptions and experiences on a topic
decided by the researcher (Cyr, 2017; Guo and Loo, 2013; Lo et al., 2017; Masadeh, 2012; Nyumba et al., 2018).
Unlike quantitative methods, qualitative research usually uses a small sample. Yet, the identication of an appropriate sample size
is critical for a successful FGD, as the method relies heavily on the interaction among participants and the dynamics of the group to
generate data (Eeuwijk and Zuzana, 2017; Hennink et al., 2019; O.Nyumba et al., 2018).
Since there are no standards for establishing a specic number of participants, researchers varied in identifying the right number of
participants in each focus group. However, the typical number generally suggested as being manageable in FGDs is 6–12 participants
who represent the general population (Breen, 2006; Gill and Baillie, 2018; O.Nyumba et al., 2018; Rabiee, 2004).
Deciding the number of focus group discussions required for a study is commonly determined by the “Thematic saturation”
(Hennink et al., 2019), which is best described as the point at which no additional information are found in the discussion, implying the
adequacy of data obtained (Guest et al., 2017; Hancock et al., 2016; Lowe et al., 2018). Although it is almost impossible to reach total
saturation, as there is always the potential to discover new things in data, it was found that the rst focus group produces around 65%
of all themes, with a sharp decline thereafter, while two to three focus groups are sufcient to generate 80% of themes (Hennink et al.,
2019).
In this study, two FGDs were conducted for parents of refugee schoolchildren aged 6 to 15 form Jerash camp. The parental sessions
were held separately on the basis of gender, one for males and one for females, in order to make it more comfortable and more
appropriate for the camp’s culture. However, for the children who had lost both parents, their guardians were allowed to participate in
the FGDs, resulting in two cases of grandfather participation in this study. The fathers and grandfathers were assigned in the same
group. Finally, the FGDs involved a group of 10 mothers and a group of 7 fathers and two grandfathers from different households (one
of the fathers missed the session).
The process used to recruit the participants was purposive rather than random, where participants had to meet the following
eligibility criteria: (1) have school-age children or grandchildren (between 6 and 15 years old), (2) be from different dwelling locations
in the camp, and (3) be willing to thoroughly discuss any sensitive issues related to the safety and security of their children. However,
participation as respondents for this study was on a voluntary basis. All participants were from the camp, but they varied in their
demographic characteristics, knowledge, life experience, and educational backgrounds. The participants were invited through the
Camp Ofcer, who is assigned by UNRWA
1
to follow up internal camp affairs.
Table 1 illustrates the characteristics of the participants. Both sessions were conducted in the camp’s meeting hall on the same day.
The mothers’ FGD started at 11.00 a.m. and the fathers-grandfathers’ FGD started at 2.00 p.m., both sessions last for almost 3 h. The
same discussion points, questions and tools were used in both sessions.
1
United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees.
E. Al-Najjar et al.
Journal of Transport & Health 26 (2022) 101370
5
3.3. Focus group discussion
Following the FGD protocol, a shortlist of discussion points was prepared as an interview guide that included open-ended and
judgement-free questions drawn from the ndings of the literature review. The guide aimed to reect the parental perceptions of their
children’s safety while walking to school (i.e., distance, crime, trafc, weather conditions and time of the day) in light of the de-
mographic characteristics of schoolchildren. Before starting, the details and objectives of the focus group discussions were clearly
explained to the participants, and their consent was obtained, as shown in the guide (see Appendix A). At the end of each session, the
parents were asked to dene the most critical (unsafe) spots and routes on a printed map of the camp.
3.4. Ethical consideration
At the beginning of each session, the participants were informed that participation in this study was voluntary, that they could
withdraw at any time with no obligations, and their stay indicated their consent to participate. In addition to ensuring that the identity
of the participants remains anonymous, and all data shared in these sessions is condential and utilized solely for academic research
purposes, as described in Appendix A.
3.5. Thematic analysis
Thematic analysis is an approach that can be used to explore large qualitative data sets, where the data is examined to identify
common themes with relevance to the research goals and framework (Mammen et al., 2015; Nowell et al., 2017; Roberts et al., 2019).
In this study, thematic analysis was performed following Nowell et al. (2017) step by step, to conduct a trustworthy analysis that would
positively contribute to exploring safety and security issues in the camp.
The Arabic language audio recordings of the sessions were transcribed and reread for familiarisation in order to enhance credibility.
The transcripts were translated from Arabic into English and discussed with a translator to avoid mistakes. Then a thorough process of
coding the data and identifying the themes took place. The study used a deductive analysis approach to develop the themes, thus the
coding process started with specic questions in mind based on a deep understanding of the literature. This coding process consisted of
four key stages:
1. Familiarisation: going through the raw data (transcripts) and understanding the overall context in order to dene the key ideas and
recurrent themes.
2. Generation of initial codes and identication of theme framework: assigning themes to the main issues that emerged in the
transcriptions and organising the data into meaningful groups linked with each other by logical relationships.
3. Indexing: applying the thematic framework to all the transcripts by dening quotations by means of codes and themes.
4. Interpretation: elucidating the ndings by using diagrams to dene concepts and visually mapping the relationships between
themes in order to provide explanations and produce the nal report.
Fig. 1. Location of Jerash camp and schools within and beyond the camp.
E. Al-Najjar et al.
Journal of Transport & Health 26 (2022) 101370
6
The analysis and coding were facilitated by ATLAS.ti 9 software. Codes and themes were systematically reviewed and rened to
ensure that they reected the subject matter of the study. Finally, two other researchers reviewed the list of themes in order to
categorise and nalise the results.
4. Results
This section highlights the main ndings of the FGDs. The thematic analysis of the FGDs resulted in three main headings or topics:
(1) main safety and security issues schoolchildren face on their way to school based on parents’ perceptions and experiences, (2) main
factors that inuence the likelihood of exposure to hazards and (3) suggestions to improve the safety of school routes in refugee camps.
Each topic is discussed in the following sections. Fig. 2 presents the framework generated by the thematic analysis, which portrays the
relationship between themes.
The analysis of qualitative data focuses on the perspectives and views of participants, rather than relying on the number of par-
ticipants. Therefore, in terms of reporting, focus group data should not be quantied or presented in percentages (Hancock et al.,
2016). However, since reporting themes and sub-themes that appear in the transcripts, by nding short quotations, is the traditional
method used by qualitative researchers (Breen, 2006; Guest et al., 2017; Hancock et al., 2016; Lowe et al., 2018), the more frequently
themes appear in the data set, the more likely they are to implicitly indicate their importance and their relevance to specic issues.
Table 2, Table 3 and Table 4 show the frequency of themes and sub-themes being discussed among parents during the FGDs,
supported by examples from transcripts.
Table 1
Key characteristics of FGD participants.
Group Participant ID Participant Age No of children, Gender (Age)
Mothers W01 33 1 male (12), 2 female (5,3)
W02 37 1 male (6)
W03 34 1 male (4), 4 females (11,7,5,2)
W04 28 1 male (8), 3 females (12,10,5)
W05 46 6 females (18,17,17,13,11,5)
W06 30 3 males (9,3,1)
W07 28 4 females (7,5,3,2)
W08 31 2 males (6,1), 1 female (5)
W09 30 3 males (15,10,4), 3 females (14,9,7)
W10 31 1 male (9), 2 females (6,3)
Fathers - Grandfathers M01 39 3 males (10,9,7)
M02 28 2 females (7,2)
M03 35 3 males (11,9,8), 2 females (6,5)
M04 32 1 male (5), 1 female (6)
M05 30 1 male (6)
M06 29 1 female (8)
M07 (grandfather) 62 8 males (16,15,12,11,9,9,6,3), 4 females (13,12,8,2)
M08 (grandfather) 57 2 males (15,10), 5 females (11,10,7,6,5)
M09 42 3 males (7,6,3)
Table 2
Thematic analysis results – Safety and security issues of school routes.
Sub-Theme
No. of quotations in
fathers’ FGD
No. of quotations in
mothers’ FGD
Example from transcript
Trafc collisions 10 6 “Going to the schools by walking is too dangerous for children especially at the
bottleneck in the middle of the camp, we have trafc jam in this spot all the time,
cars use this road not only to enter the camp, but also to cross to other villages
nearby the camp” M09
“My sons were hit by cars when they left school” M01
“Just last year, four children died from car accidents” W09
Crime exposure (Harassment,
bullying, ghts & kidnaps)
9 15 “Another problem I think is bullying and harassment … I don’t think there is a
difference, harassment and bullying can happen at all stages” M05
“Harassment occurs all the time, but this was the rst child sexual assault incident
in the camp” M06
“Both genders are exposure to harassement, boys even more than girls.. I always
warn my son of being sexually abused” W06
“We heard many stories about children who disappeared and never came back,
but they’re just stories” W08
Animal attack 2 4 “That’s right, the stray dogs number has increased recently” M02
“I asked him not to take this road when he comes home because it is too dangerous
to walk in the bush between dogs and snakes.” W01
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4.1. Safety & security issues of school routes
The thematic analysis of FGDs generated three sub-themes that represent the most critical safety and security issues were found.
These are risk of trafc collisions, risk of exposure to crime including kidnapping, harassment, bullying and ghting with other
children, and risk of animal attack.
Table 2 shows the safety issues resulted from the thematic analysis; the frequency of the sub-themes raised during the FGDs. The
analysis revealed that there was difference in perceptions towards safety and security issues between both groups (mothers vs fathers-
grandfathers). For example, mothers mentioned exposure to crime such as harassment and bullies as the most concerning issue
compared to trafc collisions and dangerous animals, whereas fathers-grandfathers expressed greater concern about trafc safety and
collision risk. However, both groups mentioned stray dogs and snakes as possible dangers that may face students on their way to
school.
4.2. Factors inuencing exposure to safety hazards
The transcripts also included sub-themes for several factors that contribute to the parental concerns about safety and security
issues, and directly associated with schoolchildren’s exposure to hazards. Table 3 shows the analysis results of these factors, which
were grouped into four categories: environmental factors, socio-cultural and economic factors, demographic factors, and nally
behavioural factors.
4.2.1. Environmental factors
This category included a variety of factors that affected the safety of schoolchildren with regard to their surroundings while walking
to school, such as distance and school location, school route condition, presence of pedestrian facilities, and the effects of the season
(weather) and the time at which students walk to school on each school shift.
4.2.2. Socio-cultural and economic factors
Within this category several factors of social, cultural, and economic nature emerged during the focus groups, such as the income
and living conditions, its impact on the choice of the travel mode to school, in addition to the restrictions and rules imposed by the
cultural nature of refugee camps. These factors were found to have a direct inuence on the safety of school routes.
4.2.3. Demographic factors
Both the age and gender of the schoolchildren were classied under the demographic characteristics’ category. These factors affect
the perception of security and safety in the camp; besides they reect the degree of exposure to safety hazards and issues of
schoolchildren.
4.2.4. Behavioural factors
Finally, the speed of drivers on streets, parental monitoring, and inuence of internet availability on school children’s behaviour
were analysed under the behavioural category. These factors focus on human behaviours that are perceived to affect children’s safety
Fig. 2. Final framework generated by the thematic analysis.
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Table 3
Thematic analysis results – Factors inuencing exposure to safety hazards.
Category
Sub-theme No. of quotations in
fathers’ FGD
No. of quotations
in mothers’ FGD
Example from transcript
Environmental
Factors
Distance & school
location
10 8 “The school is about 2 km far from the camp, it is outside the
camp’s borders” M07
“Distance is a big problem, there are some students who come
from the farthest point of the camp, near cemetry, to this
school” M05
Pedestrian facilities
& route condition
19 9 “They added a side walk but without handrails or any barrier to
protect children” M09
“Well, there is no drainage system in the whole camp” M01
“Manshieh is even harder to get to not only because it’s far but
also because the route to school has a high slope like a valley it’s
really hard to use, muddy, dark and really scarey.” W06
Season & time of
the day
14 7 “For me the winter is the worst, I don’t allow my children to go
to school in some cold days” M02
“The main problem occurs every day at noon, during the time of
switching shifts, when the morning shift students leave school
and the evening shift students come in, you can’t imagine the
number of schoolchildren occupying the schools’ street!!” M05
“I don’t let my children go out to street in the early morning or
at lunch time” W01
Category Sub-theme No. of quotations
in fathers’ FGD
No. of quotations in
mothers’ FGD
Example from transcript
Socio-cultural&
Economic
Factors
Income & living
conditions.
3 6 “But there is no money, even if there are taxis or buses to take
children, I won’t be able to afford it, I barely can pay for
gasoline, gas, electric bills and water bills to add transportation”
M09
“We’re from Gaza how can we work?” W03
“The nancial situation does not allow us to pay any money for
buses” W10
Cultural
restrictions & rules
5 7 “Many fathers would rather not let their daughters go to school
after the 10th grade, because she will need to go to the
secondary school which is too far” M05
“Ouside the camp is not safe at all, but inside the camp it is safe,
because we all look for each other inside the camp” M07
“Here it’s a tribal culture, if anyone is in trouble the whole tribe
must support him” W03
Travel mode choice 4 8 “The schools are close no need to ride, except for “Manshieh”
students, some of them walk to school and some may go by a car
they pay a rent to of 25 cents, which is an extra cost on the
parents” M07
“No, I would never let my son walk” M01.
“If the school provides a bus service that would be great,
because most of the mothers they cannot afford such service by
themselves, especially who has more than one kid” W07
Category Sub-theme No. of quotations in
fathers’ FGD
No. of quotations in
mothers’ FGD
Example from transcript
Demographic
Factors
Students’ age 6 10 “The critical age is between (6–10) years old, at this age they
won’t tell their parents” M05
“Boys at Manshieh school are of more critical ages … students
aged between (12–15) are more reckless” W06
Students’ gender 7 4 “Girls are much more subjected to harassment than boys” M01
“Both genders are exposed to harassment, and boys even more
than girls.” W06
Behavioural Factors Speed of drivers 7 5 “Another problem is that the cars speed on main streets in the
camp is high and the main streets are direclty connected to small
local roadways.. sometimes children come running from their
homes to the main street and get hit by cars” M05
“Just yesterday one driver was driving too fast between houses”
W06
Parental
monitoring
0 5 “I don’t allow my 12-year-old boy to take my phone, except if
he needs something for school on internet and only under my
supervision” W01
“I really have tough rules about going out at these times” W01
Internet
availability
0 6 “Before internet, there was harassment, but it wasn’t among
children like now, there were some incidents but only among
adults” W05
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Journal of Transport & Health 26 (2022) 101370
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while walking to school. For example, speed and aggressive behaviour of drivers on the streets increase the risk of road accidents. The
internet availability and accessibility, especially with absence of parental monitoring, was also found to inuence children’s attitude
and increases rates of bullying and harassment among children while travelling to school.
4.3. Parents’ suggestions to increase safety & security of school routes
Suggestions to reduce safety hazards were brought up by parents during FGDs. Three sub-themes were identied for this theme
based on the FGDs, which are providing free transport service to school, improving road infrastructure and pedestrian facilities, and
providing safety and security education and awareness. Table 4 shows examples of some parents’ suggestions from transcript.
4.3.1. Providing a free transport service to school
Providing free shuttle buses has been reported as a necessary measure to be provided for schoolchildren, especially for those who go
to “Manshieh” school, which is located outside the camp. This suggestion was raised during the mothers’ session and was supported by
fathers who pointed to their nancial inability to pay for transportation services for their children.
4.3.2. Improving road infrastructure and pedestrian facilities
The need to improve road infrastructure and pedestrian facilities was among the most prominent topics that were discussed during
the focus groups, as parents made many suggestions in this regard to increase the level of school routes’ safety. The suggestions
included providing an adequate drainage system, adding speed bumps, appropriate sidewalks and handrails, adequate street drainage
system, in addition to establishing a pedestrian bridge on the main street in the camp.
4.3.3. Providing adequate education
Raising the safety and security awareness of both children and their parents was recommended throughout the FGDs, as a high
perception of safety hazards is required to avoid their occurrence and to know how to behave if they do occur. Schoolchildren, for
example, might benet from some education programs to raise their knowledge of the types of threats to their safety, and to encourage
them to stand up for their rights. Education on road safety instructions, enhanced family accountability and knowledge on children’s
safety and security, increased school supervision, and stricter enforcement of trafc regulations were also proposed during the FGDs.
5. Discussion
Our ndings indicate that trafc collisions and fear of exposure to crime were the most frequently mentioned by parents during the
FGDs, which supports ndings of many previous studies that both factors are the most signicant concerns in children’s independent
travel (Al-omari et al., 2012; Easton and Ferrari, 2015b; Faulkner et al., 2010; Garrard, 2017; Huertas-delgado et al., 2011; Ikeda et al.,
2018a ; Oyeyemi et al., 2012; Seraj et al., 2009; Stewart et al., 2012). On the other hand, the possibility of being attacked by stray dogs
and snakes emerged in the context of travelling to school in a refugee camp. This nding is less highlighted in studies on children
mobility but may be signicant in rural areas in other low-income countries (Porter et al., 2010).
The high rate of trafc collisions on the refugee camp’s local and the main streets was highlighted in both sessions, with greater
worries among fathers and grandfathers. Several fatal crashes and injuries involving children during the past few years were reported
by parents in Jerash camp. These incidents seem to be the result of the camp’s central location between other villages and towns which
causes the main street of the camp to function as a passageway for those travelling to other locations in the area, not to mention the
high pedestrian activity and the lack of safety measures. This nding contradicts the prevailing belief that trafc collisions are not an
obstacle in low-income regions and rural areas due to limited car ownership (Shokoohi et al., 2012; Waygood et al., 2017). Gautam
Table 4
Thematic analysis results – Parents’ suggestions to increase safety and security of school routes.
Sub-theme
Example from transcript
Providing a free transport service “It would be great if the schools could provide a free bus service. There are some private minibuses that can be rented but most
of the mothers here cannot afford such service, especially those who have more than one child. For example some mothers have
4 or 5 children at school, if the mother wants to rent a minibus she will need to pay at least 10 JD per month for each child,
which means she havs to pay 50JD in total, that would be too much!!” W07
“But there is no money, even if there are taxis or buses to take children, I won’t be able to afford it” M09
Improving road infrastructure and
pedestrian facilities
“A bridge between block A and block B, will solve the problem of thousands of people, you know each school here has at least
one thousand student” M09
“Almost all the camps streets have no speed bumps … We also need sidewalks of suitable width” M02
“The rainwater creates a hard enviroment for children in the winter, I hope to have grills on the streets to drain the rainwater”
M05
“We just hope the road is in good condition and easy to walk on.”W07
“I have only one thing to ask, if they can only prepare a road for “Manshieh” school so anyone can go there easily, because the
road now is really hard to use, it’s muddy and really scarey.”W09
Providing adequate education to increase
awareness
“Well, girls’ schools are working hard to aware them of the hazards around them, especially harassment, and they train them
on how to deal with such cases, boys need more attention in this regard”M01
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Journal of Transport & Health 26 (2022) 101370
10
et al. (2021) also provided examples of incidents occurring in rural communities, due to poor road conditions, vehicle speeding and
failing to obey trafc rules, which supports this study nding.
The environmental factors and the surroundings of the walking route to school were discussed in the focus groups and a number of
issues arose in relation, such as the travel distance, road terrain, pavement and drainage conditions, as well as the presence of
pedestrian facilities (sidewalks, crossings and handrails), which is in line with numerous earlier studies (Al-Najjar et al., 2019; Corazza
et al., 2020; Hansen et al., 2015; Lo et al., 2017). It can be seen from results that parents’ concerns about travel distance and school
location is in line with the ndings of other studies (Buckley et al., 2013; Hatamzadeh et al., 2017; Ikeda et al., 2018). Nevertheless,
both the mothers and fathers in the FGDs stated that the issue of travel distance was only a reection of their worries about exposure to
unsafe route conditions rather than exhaustion from walking a long distance.
In terms of pedestrian facilities condition and its inuence on trafc safety, the fathers’ FGD recorded the highest level of concern,
whereas mothers were less anxious about pedestrian facilities and showed more concern about the surrounding environment, such as
walking through the bush.
The effect of the season (weather) and the time of the day was raised in the focus groups as one of the environmental factors
affecting the safety and security of schoolchildren, with mothers expressing concerns about the weather, but to a lesser extent than
fathers. Fathers were more concerned about the safety of the children in the winter season, especially on rainy days, when the streets
become less crowded with camp residents, and it becomes easier to abuse children on the school route. In addition, rain exacerbates the
drainage problems in the camp, as children who walk long distances get completely wet, which can cause them to contract illnesses.
This result is in line with previous research results (Easton and Ferrari, 2015b; Stewart et al., 2012; Zhai et al., 2019; Zhou et al., 2010).
Hatamzadeh (2019) provided evidence that early morning is a risky time to go to school in winter, similar to what was stated in the
FGDs, as the children leave for school in the dark and freezing cold, which forces the mothers most of the time to take their children to
school or sometimes, when it is particularly cold, to keep them at home. Dessing et al. (2016) also reported that weather can have an
impact on children’s physical activity and travel patterns, especially in the wintertime.
Under the category of socio-cultural and economic factors, the issues of income and living conditions were brought up by the par-
ticipants in the FGDs several times to shed light on the overall economic situation in the camp and its impact on the safety of
schoolchildren. Generally, the income of the refugees in Jerash camp is low. As the inhabitants of the camp are considered foreigners
(have no citizenship), an employer cannot hire people from the camp without paying a work permit fee of 200 JD per month, which in
most cases exceeds the monthly pay check itself. Some of the camp residents have jobs in some non-governmental organisations, such
as UNRWA, but most nd work doing seasonal, irregular jobs and daily labouring. Parents gave their economic status as the main
reason for the lack of travel mode alternatives, where they were restricted to the only option they could afford, i.e., walking, even
though they do not feel comfortable about letting their children walk alone to school. Despite the fact that walking to school has
become one of the sustainable transport agendas in the developed world, walking alone in refugee camps is considered quite dangerous
for children. These concerns are justied in the literature on crime rates in small communities, where poverty and low income were
found strongly associated with high rates of crime (Donnermeyer, 2015; McAra and McVie, 2016).
Many of the other inuences that were discussed were also within the socio-cultural and economic factors category, and included
the cultural norms and restrictions imposed by the tribal nature of the camp. For instance, the strongly embedded tribal structure of the
camp community has created a bond among the ex-Gazan refugees and kept the knowledge of their history alive. On the other hand,
this tribal characteristic has propagated a kind of culture of shame about admitting to being harassed and forbids discussion of this
sensitive issue out loud, which leaves many children vulnerable to rights violations (Chubin, 2014; Li and Craig, 2019). While mothers
were more open to expressing their worries about harassment, fathers were more in denial, despite showing concern about their girls
and reporting several instances of girls having to drop out of school after 10th grade (at the age of 15 years), so they would not have to
travel a long distance to a school located outside the camp.
The demographic characteristics of children were also found to have an inuence on the parental perception of safety and security.
Parents expressed different concerns about the safety of their children depending on the latter’s age. Similar to the literature (Hong and
Espelage, 2012; H. Wang et al., 2018), the ndings showed that there were differences in the response to risk between children of
different ages. Mothers showed more concern about children between (6–10) years old being exposed to kidnapping, harassment,
bullying or assault, due to their lack of experience and strength to defend themselves or even to express their need for help, while they
believed that older children (i.e., of ages 11–15) were mature enough to understand and avoid such risks.
On the other hand, fathers were more concerned about adolescents between (12–15) years old, as they tend to be more reckless and
are more likely to engage in risky behaviours (Jagnoor et al., 2020; Knoll et al., 2015). The fact that the secondary school is located
outside the camp was also found to increase parents’ fears for their children being involved in bullying and harassment, as the route to
school was beyond their supervision and they may hurt each other.
In terms of trafc safety and age, both the mothers and fathers stated that children under the age of 12 years have a lower ability to
handle trafc issues and are more prone to trafc collisions and crashes, which is in accordance with the ndings of previous studies
(Garrard, 2017; Helbich, 2017).
Children’s gender also had a signicant effect on the parents’ perception of safety, where fathers tended to be more protective of
their daughters in terms of harassment and crime exposure. This supports Buliung et al. (2017) and Foster et al. (2014) who reported
that issues related to safety are often gendered and affect the independence of girls more as compared to boys. Nevertheless, fathers
showed no difference in their level of anxiety between boys and girls in relation to trafc safety and animal attack. Mothers expressed
the same concerns for both genders, but unlike fathers they were more fearful about boys being molested as compared to girls,
especially boys under the age of 8 years old. They also pointed out that girls are more aware of harassment issues than boys, a
viewpoint that was conrmed by the fathers as well. This viewpoint differs from other research that support the girls’ vulnerability
E. Al-Najjar et al.
Journal of Transport & Health 26 (2022) 101370
11
compared to boys (Easton and Ferrari, 2015b; Hatamzadeh et al., 2017; Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al., 2019; Ross et al., 2019).
As for the fourth thematic category, Behavioural factors, the mothers emphasised the role of the internet availability and its huge
impact on children’s safety and behaviour, believing that the growth of internet access in the community, coupled with the absence of
parental control, triggered aggressive attitude and caused unacceptable behaviour to spread among children. Before the internet,
parents were concerned about children being hurt by adults, but now children are seen as a potential source of harm to each other
(Mitchell et al., 2016, 2018).
The mothers also asserted that it was important to observe children at all times to avoid any threats that might affect their safety.
On the other hand, fathers did not consider the internet to inuence children and felt that parental monitoring was the responsibility of
mothers who stay at home all day long while the fathers work outside the camp.
6. Strengths & limitations
When considering the above ndings, it is important to note that the strength of this study lies in the important contribution it adds
to the literature in the eld of Safe Route To Schools (SRTS), which is currently among the most concerning research topics in the
sustainable transportation domain. Besides, it is one of the earliest studies that highlights refugee children’s safety and security issues
and investigates school routes conditions in refugee camps. This study is expected to become a reference for future studies involving
the children in refugee camps, especially in road safety and active mode to school.
Due to the prevailing norms and culture in rural communities and camps in particular, mothers were hesitated at rst, and were
more reluctant to participate at the beginning of the discussion, where the researcher had to play a crucial role in encouraging them to
share their thoughts and ideas and succeeded in enabling women’s voices to contribute to the debate about road safety and security in
refugee camps, which is a major strength of this study. This issue was not detected during the fathers-grandfathers session, as they all
engaged in the discussion and were more comfortable expressing their opinions and thought freely. Therefore, other methods, such as
individual interviews, could be more suitable with mothers, in order to give equal opportunities to all participants and to avoid
imposing the opinions of the bravest participants.
It is also of note that this study has other limitations that need to be considered and addressed in future research. For instance, this
study provided important insights into the safety and security of children in refugee camps by holding focus groups with participants
with a variety of experiences and backgrounds. Nevertheless, the study sample was limited to parents from the camp residents. A wider
range of interviews with policymakers and camps’ local community ofcials in further studies may provide a deeper understanding of
the obstacles to implementing programs and measures that increase safety and security in the camp.
In terms of sample size, while most scholars’ ndings show that thematic saturation is achieved at a relatively small number of
focus, as more than 80% of themes are captured by the second focus group (Guest et al., 2017; Hennink et al., 2019; Lowe et al., 2018;
Rabiee, 2004), a common guideline for focus groups that consider gender of participants is to conduct at least two focus groups for each
gender category (Hennink et al., 2019). Thus, there is a chance that our ndings are limited in covering all themes related to the safety
and security of refugee schoolchildren.
It is also recommended that future studies adopt a multi-perspective approach that gives a voice to the children themselves instead
of relying completely on the parental perspective.
7. Conclusion
This study investigated the main safety and security issues on school routes in a Palestinian refugee camp. Through a thematic
analysis of the FGDs that were conducted to gather and examine parental perceptions of safety in Jerash camp in Jordan, the study was
able to categorise the key themes namely, safety and security issues, factors inuencing exposure to hazards and suggestions for safety
improvement. The perception and attitude towards safety threats varied slightly between mothers and fathers, which may in part be
due to the differences in biological nature, as well as the degree of involvement in their children’s daily activities. The parents’
perceptions of safety were also found to be inuenced by several environmental, economic, socio-cultural, demographic, and
behavioural factors.
The ndings of this study highlight the low level of road safety and security inside refugee camps, and thus conrm the need for
intervention programmes to enhance safety, particularly for school children. It also includes some suggestions such as providing a free
transport service for schoolchildren, improving road infrastructure and pedestrian facilities, and providing education to enhance safety
awareness among parents and students alike.
CRediT author statement
Enas Al-Najjar*: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing- Original draft prepa-
ration, and Project administration. Nur S.A. Sukor: Supervision, and Writing-reviewing and editing.Lina I. Shbeeb: Visualization,
and Writing-reviewing and editing.
Financial disclosure
The authors state that they did not receive any specic funding for this work.
Enas Al-Najjar.
E. Al-Najjar et al.
Journal of Transport & Health 26 (2022) 101370
12
Ph.D. Candidate.
School of Civil Engineering.
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)
Declaration of compting interest
We the undersigned declare that this manuscript is original, has not been published before and is not currently being considered for
publication elsewhere.
We conrm that the manuscript has been read and approved by all named authors and that there are no other persons who satised
the criteria for authorship but are not listed. We further conrm that the order of authors listed in the manuscript has been approved by
all of us.
We conrm that each author has disclosed on the form below any conict of interest, in accordance with Elsevier’s standard
guidelines. These are summarized below, and given in full at: www.elsevier.com/authors/author-rights-and-
responsibilities#responsibilities.
We understand that the Corresponding Author is the sole contact for the Editorial process. He/she is responsible for communicating
with the other authors about progress, submissions of revisions and nal approval of proofs.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2022.101370.
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