Sedentary Behavior And Parental Perceptions And Intentions Toward Physical Activity Of Puerto Rican Children

Abstract

PURPOSE: To describe parental perceptions of their children physical activity (PA) and intentions to change behaviors related to PA and device-measured of time in sedentary behaviors (SBT) of Puerto Rican children. METHODS: Seventy-three children (mean±SD; age, 8.9±1.3 yrs; BMI 33.1±10.4 kg.m-2) wore an ActiGraph GT3X accelerometer on their right hip for seven consecutive days to estimate SBT. Parents answered a question on their perceptions (PP) of their child’s physical activity; “days that my child participate in active physical exercise for at least 20 to 30 minutes”. To answer the following categorical variables were used: “6-7 days each week”, “3-5 days each week”, and “1-2 days each week or less”. Parent’s intentions (PI) to modify PA and SBT were assessed by answering two questions; “During the next month I intend to get 30 minutes of physical exercise at least 5 days per week, and their answers were categorized into “I will probably will try”, “I probably will not try” and “I already do this”, and “During the next month, I intend to limit my child's daily TV viewing to 2 hours per day (or less)” answers categorized into “I will probably will try”, “I probably will not try”, and “I already do this”. Frequency distributions and descriptive statistics were performed for ordinal and continuous variables respectively. Due to the non-normality of the data, Mann–Whitney U-tests were used to explore differences in SBT by gender. To calculate minutes in SBT an Actigraph vector two-regression model (VM2RM) that has been validated for use in children was used (Crouter, Horton, & Bassett, 2012). RESULTS: Significant differences were found between boys and girls for total SBT (239.3±74.6 min/days vs. 296.2±128.4 min/days, respectively, p=0.024). Also, a significant difference in SBT by gender was observed. Boys whose parents expressed that they already limit their child’s TV time spend less SBT than girls (241.3±65.3 vs. 291.5±127.4, respectively, p=0.002). No significant differences in daily SBT was reported when considering PP. CONCLUSIONS: Boys whose parents already limit their TV time spent significant less time on SBT than girls. Findings support the inclusion of goals related to PI in PA and/or SBT interventions, particularly when minimizing sedentary time among children.