Abstract
BackgroundThe relationship between parental physical activity and children's physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness has not been well studied in the Australian context. Given the increasing focus on physical activity and childhood obesity, it is important to understand correlates of children's physical activity. This study aimed to investigate whether parental exercise was associated with children's extracurricular sports participation and cardiorespiratory fitness.MethodsThe data were drawn from a nationally representative sample (n = 8,484) of 7–15 year old Australian schoolchildren, surveyed as part of the Australian Schools Health and Fitness Survey in 1985. A subset of 5,929 children aged 9–15 years reported their participation in extracurricular sports and their parents' exercise. Cardiorespiratory fitness was measured using the 1.6 km (1-mile) run/walk and in addition for children aged 9, 12 or 15 years, using a physical work capacity test (PWC170).ResultsWhile the magnitude of the differences were small, parental exercise was positively associated with children's extracurricular sports participation (p < 0.001), 1.6 km run/walk time (p < 0.001) and, in girls only, PWC170 (p = 0.013). In most instances, when only one parent was active, the sex of that parent was not an independent predictor of the child's extracurricular sports participation and cardiorespiratory fitness.ConclusionParental exercise may influence their children's participation in extracurricular sports and their cardiorespiratory fitness levels. Understanding the correlates of children's extracurricular sport participation is important for the targeting of health promotion and public health interventions, and may influence children's future health status.
Highlights
The relationship between parental physical activity and children's physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness has not been well studied in the Australian context
This study aimed to examine the relationship between children's extracurricular sports participation, cardiorespiratory fitness and parental exercise in a large, nationally representative sample of Australian children aged 9–15 years
Sample characteristics The number and percentage of boys and girls in each age group, school type, socioeconomic status (SES) group, proportion overweight and obese, and parental exercise category are presented in Table 1 (n = 5,929)
Summary
The relationship between parental physical activity and children's physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness has not been well studied in the Australian context. Given the increasing focus on physical activity and childhood obesity, it is important to understand correlates of children's physical activity. This study aimed to investigate whether parental exercise was associated with children's extracurricular sports participation and cardiorespiratory fitness. An important component of children's total physical activity comes from extracurricular sports participation. Extracurricular sports are those organised and non-organised sports played outside of the school curriculum, and form an element of children's discretionary physical activity. Extracurricular sports participation has substantially decreased in Australian children over the last 15 years. The prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity has increased, with Australian children in 1995 being nearly twice as likely to be overweight and more than three times as likely to be obese as children in 1985 [7]
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