Abstract
BackgroundParental influences are essential to the behaviours and physical activity of their children. Our study aimed to determine if parental beliefs and support are associated with children’s pedometer measured physical activity levels on school days and weekend days.MethodsIn the spring of 2009 and 2011, we analyzed cross-sectional data from 1,355 grade five students and parents in 30 schools in Alberta, Canada. Parents reported how much they care about exercising, how much they encourage their child to be physically active, and how frequently they engage in physical activities with their child. Physical activity was assessed from step counts obtained from time-stamped pedometers collected over nine consecutive days.ResultsIncreased parental encouragement was positively associated with boys’ and girls’ physical activity on school days (Boys: beta = 1373, 95% CI: 606, 2139; Girls: beta = 632, 95% CI: 108, 1155) and girls’ physical activity on weekend days (beta = 997, 95% CI: 130, 1864). Increased parental care was positively associated with boys’ physical activity on weekend days (beta = 1381, 95% CI: 85, 2676). Increased parental support and engagement was associated with an additional 632–1381 steps/day for children in this study.ConclusionsParental care, encouragement and engagement are associated with physical activity levels of children 10–11 years of age. Policy makers and researchers should consider the importance of targeting parents when designing strategies to promote physical activity in children. This is particularly relevant to weekends and holidays when children’s activity levels are low.
Highlights
Parental influences are essential to the behaviours and physical activity of their children
Data processing For our analyses we only considered pedometer recordings when worn for a minimum of 8 hours per day [21]
The average daily step count was higher on school days than on weekend days (12,868 ± 4006 vs. 11763 ± 6636 steps/ day p < 0.001)
Summary
Parental influences are essential to the behaviours and physical activity of their children. Our study aimed to determine if parental beliefs and support are associated with children’s pedometer measured physical activity levels on school days and weekend days. We have previously demonstrated that these trends are significantly worse on weekend days, relative to weekdays [3] These trends are concerning as low levels of physical activity during childhood contribute to obesity. As children spend substantial time at school, parents may have more opportunities to influence children’s physical activity on weekend days than on school days. The importance of parental beliefs and support as a correlate of children’s weekend day physical activity has never been studied
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