Are Family Physical Activity Habits Passed on to Their Children?

Abstract

Studies of the familial association of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) have increased in recent years. However, there is a lack of studies that have objectively examined the correlates between parents, grandparents, and childrens' PA. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to measure PA using accelerometers to determine the extent to which PA and SB correlate among parents, grandparents, and children. A sample of 169 children between 11–14 years (77 boys and 97 girls), 225 parents (98 males and 127 females) and 52 grandparents (16 males and 36 females) were recruited for the current study. Accelerometers RM42 (UKK Terveyspalvelut Oy, Tampere, Finland) were used to determine PA levels of children, parents and grandparents. Epoch was set to 1 s. Mothers' moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) was associated with children's MVPA (p < 0.05). After adjusting for age, BMI (child), and educational status, the results remain the same. Results of linear regression analyses for boys' sedentary time showed that fathers' sedentary time was significantly associated with boys (p < 0.01), but not with girls. The association of grandmothers' and grandfathers' MVPA activity with that of children showed that grandparents' MVPA, when adjusted for age, BMI, and educational status, was not a significant predictor (p > 0.05) of children's MVPA (total sample). In contrast, grandfathers' sedentary behavior was a significant predictor (β = 0.269; p < 0.05) of children's sedentary behavior (total sample). The results of the current study suggest that parental involvement in PA, particularly by mothers, is important for children's PA and, accordingly, healthy outcomes.

The art of forming habits: applying habit theory in changing physical activity behaviour

“…Parents may help motivate their children, which can significantly influence engagement in health-promoting behaviour, for example, PA. The findings from a recent study in Slovenia among primary school children and their parents showed that mothers' moderate-vigorous PA was significantly associated with children's moderate to vigorous-intensity PA (Zovko et al 2021). Self-determination theory applied among US school adolescents showed that both identified regulation and intrinsic motivation were positively associated with moderate to vigorous-intensity PA (Nogg et al 2021).…”

Development and validation of the Chinese family environment influencing physical activity habits scale

“…Families provide the foundation for learning and adopting health behaviors (Hunt et al, 2015 ). Extensive research has demonstrated the impact of the family environment on the formation of exercise habits among adolescents (Mota, 1998 ; Zovko et al, 2021 ). For example, factor such as family support (Kuo et al, 2007 ; Álvarez Muñoz and Hernández Prados, 2023 ; Hu and Cai, 2023 ), parental role modeling (Adkins et al, 2017 ; Do et al, 2023 ), and the availability of resources and opportunities for physical activity within the family context (Álvarez Muñoz and Hernández Prados, 2023 ) have been found to be crucial in influencing adolescents' exercise behaviors.…”

Clustering of Activity-Related Behaviors in Relation to Self-Reported Causes of Stress among Pre-Adolescents: Results from a National Epidemiological Study

“…Furthermore, children who were inactive, although non-sedentary, followed less healthy dietary patterns with a higher likelihood of belonging to single-parent families. Indeed, research showed that single-parent families had children who exhibited poorer dietary habits [ 25 ] and were prone to sedentariness [ 26 ], likely because parents’ involvement in physical activities plays a significant role in children’s physical activity [ 27 ].…”