Impact of Parenting Styles on Physical Activity of Children

Abstract

The study is based on the broader context of the phenomenon of physical movement and sportive activities in contemporary sedentary society. The issue of parenting styles targeted towards the active lifestyle, with regular physical activity as its integral part, becomes more and more relevant. Different parenting styles are being revised; at the level of authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and neglectful style, marking the motivation for physical activity for children and adolescents. This includes the simultaneous process of agents of socialization reviving sociological context of a relationship of young people and sports mainly in the frame of motivation for physical activity even outside the family, in the organized sports environment. Therefore, a newly-formed socially and culturally conditioned relationship sporting child – parents – trainer appears, which, in the climate of consumer society and elite sportsperson adoration, brings possible conflicts of motivations, experiences and direction of the different actors of this triangle. This focuses our attention both on the parents‘ responsibility and the growing educational and socializing role of the trainer. In the synergic process, therefore, questions related to the importance of age and motivation in the targeted direction of a child towards physical activity, when the influence of parents is in this aspect crucial and irreplaceable and becomes even stronger in the situations when the parents appeal at their children by regular sporting together. In the text, this is also supported by empirical knowledge of parenting approach to physical activity of children and adolescents.