Factors Influencing on the Parental Support of Children’s Physical Activity

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine the impact of parental support of physical activity and parents’ past levels of competitiveness in sports on parenting attitudes. The research subjects were 256 parents of freshman students in a university’s Health and Sports Science Department and Medical Department. The time period of this research was November 2014 to January 2015. Questionnaires included the Parental Support Scale, the past levels of competitiveness in sports, and the Parenting Attitude Scale. The exploratory actor analyses were conducted on the Parental Support Scale and the Parenting Attitude Scale, separately. The results revealed that the Parental Support Scale consisted of 3 factors with 4 items each (total of 12 items) and the Parenting Attitude Scale consisted of 2 factors with 4 items each (total of 12 items). The reliabilities and validities of these two scales were also assessed. In the multiple regression analyses, the Parental Support Scale was set as a dependent variable, and the Parenting Attitude Scale and the level of competitiveness in sports were set as independent variables. The analyses were conducted separately on fathers and mothers and separately on male and female children. The path models showed the gender difference between fathers and mothers and difference between male and female children, and both the parenting attitude and the level of competitiveness in sports distinctively influenced on the parental support of children’s physical activity. When we considered past levels of competitiveness in sports and parental support of physical activity as potential factors affecting parenting attitudes, the latter factor had an impact among both fathers and mothers, whereas the former factor was significant only among mothers. Parents should increase their emphasis on responsiveness when raising boys and on demandingness when raising girls to contribute to improvement in their parenting attitude.