Agreement Between Proxy and Youth Reported Potential Correlates of Physial Activity

Abstract

1787 Frequently adults are asked to report the physical activity of children and potential correlates of physical activity. Since adults are not with the child during the entire day, there may be error in the reported responses. During the Amherst Health and Activity Study, data were collected about children in grades 7–12 from both the child and their parents. PURPOSE: To determine the agreement between parent reported and child's self reported correlates of physical activity. Also to ascertain if the relationship between child's report of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and parent and child reported correlates are equivalent. METHODS: Participants were 531 youth, 47% were males and 78% were white. 96 % of the adults were the child's parent. Students in 7th to 9th grade were 12.9 (0.9) years and students in grades 10–12 were 15.6 (0.9) years old. Agreement between adult and child responses to questions included number of sport teams, classes and lessons, family influences, peer influences, diet, athletic coordination, availability of parks and gyms, enjoyment of PE and physical activity were assessed by intra-class corrlelations (ICC). Pearson correlations were used to evaluate the relationship between potential correlates and child reported MVPA. RESULTS: ICCs ranged from 0.48 for family influences to 0.78 for athletic coordination. Parent and child agreement was higher in older children and in females. ICC between child and adult report of child's MVPA was 0.56. Pearson correlations between physical activity correlates and MVPA ranged from 0.06 to 0.27 for child reported and 0.07 to 0.33 for adult report. Significant differences occurred only for report of athletic coordination and family influences (p<0.05). But both pairs were in the same direction and were significantly related to MVPA. CONCLUSIONS: Agreement between adult and child reported correlates of physical activity ranged from moderate to substantial. Also, the relationship between child reported MVPA and child and adult reported correlates of physical activity were very similar. Therefore adult family members provide useful data for their children in grades 7–12.