The influence of fathers on children's physical activity: A review of the literature from 2009 to 2015.

635 Understanding parent perceptions of healthy physical activity for their child with a chronic medical condition

Background Since the outbreak and global spread ofCOVID-19, countries rapidly introduced a range of preventative measures and isolation protocols to ensure safety, which ultimately led to the implementation of total lockdowns. As a result, children lost access to spaces where they typically engage in physical activity and were required to stay indoors. Objective The objective of this study is to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's physical activity levels and analyze the factors influencing their physical activity during this period. Methods Parents from various Emirates participated in an online survey to evaluate changes in their children's physical activity during the COVID-19 lockdown compared to the pre-lockdown period. The survey included questions about time spent on sedentary activities, general physical activity, and specific play behaviors before and during the lockdown. It also assessed the parents' own physical activity and their involvement in their children's activities. The relationships between these behaviors, as well as demographic and environmental factors, were analyzed. Results The study included 272 parents who completed an online survey about their child's physical activity during the COVID-19 lockdown. Many parents reported significant changes in their children's physical activity and screen time. Specifically, 89 (32.7%) observed a major decrease in physical activity, while 77 (28.3%) noted a minor decrease. Regarding screen time, 79 (29.0%) of parents reported a major increase, and 87 (32.0%) saw a minor increase. Key factors influencing children's physical activity were identified. Most notably, parents' own activity levels had a significant impact on their children's activity (p < 0.001). Additionally, children living in villas were more active than those living in apartments or traditional houses (p = 0.007), and UAE national children were slightly more active than non-nationals (p = 0.023). Conclusion This study demonstrated the significant impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on children's activity and emphasized the importance of parental involvement in supporting their children's activity levels. It highlights the need for increased attention during the recovery phase from this crisis and calls for the development of strategies and guidelines to prevent similar challenges in future pandemics or similar emergencies.

Background: To date, most research investigating the influence of parents on children's physical activity behavior has been conducted among school-aged children. As a result, we have a limited understanding of the mechanisms through which parents can influence their young children's physical activity behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of various hypothesized parental influence variables on children's physical activity behaviors. Methods: An on-line survey assessing various hypothesized parental influences and an estimate of the amount of time their child engaged in physical activity behavior was completed by 176 parents. Results: Parents who perceived physical activity to be important for their child, had confidence in providing support for their child's physical activity, had good physical activity experiences as a child, and had high perceptions of their child's physical ability were more likely to employ activity-facilitating parenting practices and behaviors that were associated with their preschool children's physical activity behaviors. Discussion and Translation to Health Education Practice: Parenting practices and behaviors (e.g., parental support for children's activity behaviors) may play an important role in preschool children's physical activity behaviors. Future prospective studies are needed to confirm the findings of the present study.

Introduction Children diagnosed with a pediatric brain tumor (PBT) are at risk for deficits that can affect their quality of life (QoL). One potential avenue to target the QoL of these patients is physical activity (PA). This study aimed to evaluate the association between parent and child PA levels, and the unique contributions of these outcomes to children’s overall and domain-specific QoL in children with PBT, including those in active treatment and remission. Methods In this cross-sectional study conducted in a hospital setting, we measured PA levels of 36 parent-child dyads through self-reported weekly minutes of PA. We assessed children’s overall and domain-specific (i.e. physical, emotional, social, school functioning) QoL with the PedsQL Generic Core Scales. We analyzed our data descriptively and using correlation analyses to explore relationships between child and parent PA levels. We used an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) to evaluate whether child and parent PA were associated with children’s QoL. Results In 36 parent-child dyads, we found a strong positive correlation between parent and child (mage = 10.44 ± 4.09; range 5−18 years) PA levels (r = 0.802, p < 0.001). The APIM revealed excellent model fit indices (χ²(8) = 3.40, p = 0.907, CFI = 1.000, TLI = 1.208, RMSEA = 0 (90% CI[0, 0.079]), SRMR = 0.077) and a significant actor effect, with child PA being significantly positively associated with the child’s overall QoL (β = 0.779, FDR-corrected p = 0.05, 95% CI[0.019, 0.108]). There was no partner effect, however, as parents’ PA was not associated with the child’s overall or domain-specific QoL (median FDR-corrected p = 0.290). Conclusion This study demonstrated that in children diagnosed with a PBT, child PA levels are significantly associated with their overall QoL, and parents’ PA is not associated with their child’s QoL. These findings highlight the need for clinical interventions that promote PA that is tailored to the needs of this population. Future research should explore approaches for family-based interventions to enhance QoL.

COVID-19 caused closures of movement supporting environments such as gyms and schools in Canada. This study evaluated the association between Ontario parents' and children's physical activity levels across time during COVID-19, controlling for variables that were identified as significant predictors of children's and parents' physical activity (e.g.,children's age, parents' employment status). Parents (n = 243; mean age = 38.8y) of children aged 12 and under (n = 408; mean age = 6.3y) living in Ontario, Canada completed 2 online surveys, the first between August and December 2020 and the second between August and December 2021. At baseline, parents were asked to recall prepandemic physical activity levels. To determine the association between parent and child physical activity during COVID-19, a cross-lagged model was estimated to determine the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between parents' and children's physical activity across time. Bivariate associations revealed that parents' and children's physical activity levels were significantly related during lockdown and postlockdown but not prelockdown. The autoregressive paths from prelockdown to during lockdown were significant for children (β = 0.53, P < .001) and parents (β = 1.058, P < .001) as were the autoregressive paths from during lockdown to postlockdown for children (β = 0.61, P < .001) and parents (β = 0.48, P < .001). In fully adjusted models, the cross-lagged association between parents' physical activity prelockdowns was significantly positively associated with their children's physical activity during lockdowns (β = 0.19, P = .013). Resources are needed to ensure that children and parents are obtaining sufficient levels of physical activity, particularly during a pandemic.

Are children and adolescents less active if parents restrict their physical activity and active transport due to perceived risk?

The rapid development of cities results in many public health and built-up environmental problems, which have vital impacts on children's growth environment, the development of children, and city contradictions. There is a lack of children being a main concern when constructing new urban areas or reconstructing old districts. Children's activity spaces tend to be standardized and unified (kit, fence, and carpet) “KFC style” designs, which leads to the urban neighborhood space and the environment being insufficient to attract children to conduct activities. Therefore, starting from the urban neighborhood space environment, this paper explores what kind of spatial environment is needed for children's physical activity and its impact on children's physical activity. Taking six residential areas in the Changchun Economic Development Zone as the research object, based on the theory of children's ability development and game value, this paper uses the Woolley and Lowe evaluation tool to quantify the impact of the theory on the urban neighborhood space environment and children's physical activity. It can be confirmed that there is a significant correlation between the spatial characteristics of an urban neighborhood and the general signs of the environment on the duration and intensity of the physical activity of children. The results show that: (1) the differences in children's ages result in differences in the duration and intensity of children's physical activity in the urban neighborhood space environment; (2) the open space factor of the neighborhood space has the most significant influence on the duration of children's physical activity; (3) in terms of the environmental characteristics, whether children can be provided with education and learning opportunities has a significant impact on the duration of children's physical activity; (4) there is a significant positive correlation between children's age and the duration and intensity of the physical activity, exercise type, and imaginative activity. These results show that the urban neighborhood space environment can affect the duration of children's physical activity. In future urban residential area planning and design, urban children can meet the self-demand of physical activity in the neighborhood space through the reasonable balance and combination of neighborhood space characteristics and environmental characteristics.

During recess, children can be active on a daily basis, making it an important school environmental factor for the promotion of health-related physical activity. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of providing game equipment on children's physical activity levels during morning recess and lunch break in elementary schools. Seven elementary schools were randomly assigned to the intervention group (four schools), including 122 children (75 boys, 47 girls, mean age: 10.8 +/- 0.6 years), and to the control group (three schools), including 113 children (46 boys, 67 girls, mean age: 10.9 +/- 0.7 years). Children's activity levels were measured before and three months after providing game equipment, using MTI accelerometers. During lunch break, children's moderate and vigorous physical activity significantly increased in the intervention group (moderate: from 38 to 50%, vigorous: from 10 to 11%), while it decreased in the control group (moderate: from 44 to 39%, vigorous: from 11 to 5%). At morning recess, providing game equipment was effective in increasing children's moderate physical activity (from 41 to 45%), while it decreased in the control group (from 41 to 34%). Providing game equipment during recess periods was found to be effective in increasing children's physical activity levels. This finding suggests that promoting physical activity through game equipment provision during recess periods can contribute to reach the daily activity levels recommended for good health.

Exercise Strategies for Children

The benefits of physical activity for mental health and well-being and the associations between parental mental health and children's mental health have been well established. These important issues tend to be examined separately however, and there is limited research on the associations between parent and child physical activity and mental health when all considered together. While family focused practice is recommended to provide support for parents who have mental health problems and their families and includes various components (such as psychoeducation, support for mental health and parenting), promoting physical activity for parents and children is not usually a core component of these interventions. The Northern Ireland Youth Wellbeing Survey aimed to provide estimates of the prevalence of mental health problems among children and young people. The survey also included questions about parental physical activity, parental mental health, and children's physical activity (for those aged 11-19 years). The main aim of the analysis reported in this article was to explore possible bivariate associations between parent and child physical activity and mental health and also explore these associations when all considered together. Participants were included in the analysis where there were completed interviews for the young person and one of their parents, and both young person and parent provided responses in relation to questions on weekly physical activity (n = 882). The findings highlight the positive associations between parental physical activity and parental mental health, and between children's physical activity and children's mental health. They also explore some of the more complex interactions between these four variables, which suggest that gender may also be an important consideration. There were significant associations between father's physical activity and son's mental health, and son's physical activity and father's mental health. These findings suggest that including support for parental physical activity and children's physical activity should be a routine component of family focused mental health interventions. It is important to acknowledge that there may be additional barriers to engaging in physical activity for families where a parent is experiencing mental health problems, and these should also be explored and addressed.

The school effect on children's school time physical activity: The PEACH Project

Family-based weight loss treatment (FBT) is considered the gold-standard treatment for childhood obesity and is provided to the parent and child. However, parent-based treatment (PBT), which is provided to the parent without the child, could be similarly effective and easier to disseminate. To determine whether PBT is similarly effective as FBT on child weight loss over 24 months. Secondary aims evaluated the effect of these 2 treatments on parent weight loss, child and parent dietary intake, child and parent physical activity, parenting style, and parent feeding behaviors. Randomized 2-arm noninferiority trial conducted at an academic medical center, University of California, San Diego, between July 2011 and July 2015. Participants included 150 overweight and obese 8- to 12-year-old children and their parents. Both PBT and FBT were delivered in 20 one-hour group meetings with 30-minute individualized behavioral coaching sessions over 6 months. Treatments were similar in content; the only difference was the attendance of the child. The primary outcome measure was child weight loss (body mass index [BMI] and BMI z score) at 6, 12, and 18 months post treatment. Secondary outcomes were parent weight loss (BMI), child and parent energy intake, child and parent physical activity (moderate to vigorous physical activity minutes), parenting style, and parent feeding behaviors. One hundred fifty children (mean BMI, 26.4; mean BMI z score, 2.0; mean age, 10.4 years; 66.4% girls) and their parent (mean BMI, 31.9; mean age, 42.9 years; 87.3% women; and 31% Hispanic, 49% non-Hispanic white, and 20% other race/ethnicity) were randomly assigned to either FBT or PBT. Child weight loss after 6 months was -0.25 BMI z scores in both PBT and FBT. Intention-to-treat analysis using mixed linear models showed that PBT was noninferior to FBT on all outcomes at 6-, 12-, and 18-month follow-up with a mean difference in child weight loss of 0.001 (95% CI, -0.06 to 0.06). Parent-based treatment was as effective on child weight loss and several secondary outcomes (parent weight loss, parent and child energy intake, and parent and child physical activity). Parent-based treatment is a viable model to provide weight loss treatment to children. Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01197443.

BackgroundBest-practice early interventions to increase physical activity (PA) in children with overweight and obesity should be both feasible and evidence based. Walking is a basic human movement pattern that is practical, cost-effective, and does not require complex movement skills. However, there is still a need to investigate how much walking—as a proportion of total PA level—is performed by children who are overweight and obese in order to determine its utility as a public health strategy.ObjectiveThis study aimed to (1) investigate the proportion of overall PA indicators that are explained by step-based metrics and (2) study step accumulation patterns relative to achievement of public health recommendations in children who are overweight and obese.MethodsA total of 105 overweight and obese children (mean 10.1 years of age [SD 1.1]; 43 girls) wore hip-worn accelerometers for 7 days. PA volumes were derived using the daily average of counts per 15 seconds, categorized using standard cut points for light-moderate-vigorous PA (LMVPA) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA). Derived step-based metrics included volume (steps/day), time in cadence bands, and peak 1-minute, 30-minute, and 60-minute cadences.ResultsSteps per day explained 66%, 40%, and 74% of variance for counts per 15 seconds, LMVPA, and MVPA, respectively. The variance explained was increased up to 80%, 92%, and 77% by including specific cadence bands and peak cadences. Children meeting the World Health Organization recommendation of 60 minutes per day of MVPA spent less time at zero cadence and more time in cadence bands representing sporadic movement to brisk walking (ie, 20-119 steps/min) than their less-active peers.ConclusionsStep-based metrics, including steps per day and various cadence-based metrics, seem to capture a large proportion of PA for children who are overweight and obese. Given the availability of pedometers, step-based metrics could be useful in discriminating between those children who do or do not achieve MVPA recommendations.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT02295072; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02295072

This paper reviewed the nature of children's physical activity patterns and how the unique nature of children can impact the assessment of physical activity. To accurately assess children's activity patterns, an instrument must be sensitive enough to detect, code, or record sporadic and intermittent activity. Care also must be used to select criterion measures that reflect appropriate physical activity guidelines for children. A number of different measurement approaches have been described for assessing children's activity, but no specific method can be identified as the best option for all studies. Selection of an appropriate instrument depends on the specific research question being addressed as well as the relative importance of accuracy and practicality (Baranowski & Simons-Morton, 1991). For example, accurate measures of energy expenditure using doubly-labeled water, indirect calorimetry, or heart rate calibration equations may be needed for certain clinical studies, but the cost and inconvenience would make them impractical for field-based assessments on larger samples. The "accuracy-practicality" trade-off presents a more challenging predicament with children than for adults. In adults, a number of self-report instruments have been found useful for large epidemiological studies or interventions where less precision is needed. Because of developmental differences, especially in ability to think abstractly and perform detailed recall (Going et al., 1999; Sallis, 1991), children are less likely to make accurate self-report assessment than adults. Though self-report methods are still likely to be a principal source of information for many studies, other approaches (or the use of combined measures) may be needed to better characterize children's activity levels. While objective instruments (e.g., direct observation or activity monitoring) require more time and resources than self-report, there are options available to simplify data collection. One approach may be to focus assessments on key times or places that allow children to be active. The time after school, for example, appears to be a critical period that defines their propensity for physical activity (Hager, 1999). Monitoring of entire groups for discrete periods of time (e.g., recess or physical education) may also be useful to understand variability in activity patterns since children would all be exposed to the same stimulus or opportunity to be active. Proxy measures may also be useful in studying activity in children. For example, several studies (Baranowski, Thompson, DuRant, Baranowski, & Puhl, 1993; Sallis et al., 1993) have demonstrated that time spent outside is strongly predictive of activity in children. Involvement in community sports programs may also be a useful proxy measure as sports programs have been found to account for approximately 55-65% of children's moderate to vigorous activity (Katzmarzyk & Malina, 1999). Another option for improving assessments in children is to employ multiple measures of physical activity. A number of studies (Coleman, Saelens, Wiedrich-Smith, Finn, & Epstein, 1997; McMurray et al., 1998; Sallis et al., 1998; Simons-Morton et al., 1994) have reported differences in levels of activity when activity monitors were compared with self-report data. The method of measurement has also been shown to influence the results of studies on the determinants of physical activity in children (Epstein, Paluch, Coleman, Vito, & Anderson, 1996). While we do not currently know which measure is most accurate, reporting the results with different instruments provides a more complete description of children's activity and permit a triangulation of outcomes. In summary, there remains no single way of obtaining a highly accurate account of physical activity or energy expenditure in children. The nature of children's movement patterns, the various types of activities engaged in, and the inherent limitations of each assessment tool limit the ultima

Many children do not realize the physical health, mental health, cognitive, and academic benefits of physical activity because they are insufficiently active. Effectively promoting physical activity in children requires understanding the determinants of physical activity. Parent physical activity and support for physical activity have emerged as central influences, but few studies have applied longitudinal designs and device-based measures of child physical activity. The purposes of this cohort study were to examine direct associations between parent physical activity and child physical activity, parent physical activity and parent support for physical activity, and parent support and child physical activity; and to examine indirect associations between parent physical activity and child physical activity, mediated through parent support behaviors. We used structural equation modeling with panel analysis to examine direct and indirect influences of parent physical activity and support on 7th grade children’s physical activity, adjusted for 5th grade levels. Parent surveys were administered at the 5th grade time-point. Parent physical activity indirectly affected child physical activity, mediated through the parent support behavior of providing transportation for physical activity. Parent physical activity was also directly related to four parent support behaviors. Increasing parent support for child physical activity, and possibly parent physical activity, may be effective approaches to increasing child physical activity.