Associations between objectively assessed child and parental physical activity: a cross-sectional study of families with 5–6 year old children

Abstract

BackgroundA number of studies have suggested that there is a need to increase the physical activity levels of children. Parents are important influences on children’s behaviour. There is a lack of information about whether there are associations between the physical activity levels of young children and their parents. The current study examined the associations between the physical activity (PA) of parents and their children at age five to six years old, and determined whether any associations differed by child or parent gender or between week and weekend days.MethodsCross-sectional study, with 1267 Year 1 pupils (five to six years of age) and at least one parent from 57 primary schools. Children and parents wore an accelerometer for five days and mean minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) per day were derived. We used multivariable linear regression to investigate whether parental and child time spent in MVPA was associated with each other. Each model was adjusted for age, child gender, parent BMI and neighbourhood deprivation with subgroup analysis by child gender.Results80% of parents met PA guidelines, however 29% of boys and 47% of girls aged five to six years failed to meet them. Fully-adjusted analyses suggested weak positive associations of parent’s and children’s time spent in MVPA. Every 10 additional minutes of parental MVPA were associated with one additional minute of child MVPA. There was no evidence of a difference in associations for boys and girls or between mothers and fathers.Conclusions29% of boys and 47% of girls aged five to six years did not meet PA guidelines indicating that these children would benefit from new approaches that focus on increasing physical activity. There were weak associations between the MVPA of 5–6 year old children and their parents, demonstrating that the time that children are active with their parents is not a major source of physical activity. Clinicians and public health professionals should encourage parents to create opportunities for their children to be active.

Factors associated with objectively measured physical activity and sedentary time of 5–6-year-old children in the STEPS Study

“…Our results of the positive association between a mother's MVPA and a child's MVPA are in line with the recent study with 5-year-old children (Jago et al, 2014), in which it was found that every 10 minutes increase in parent's MVPA was associated with 1 minutes increase in MVPA of a child. The association in the current study was weak, but significant.…”

“…Our results show slightly lower percentages than the results from a study (Jago et al, 2014) where 70% of boys and just over 50% of girls of a similar age and with the same cut points for PA intensity levels as in our study, exceeded the recommendation of over 60 minutes of MVPA. Other studies also exist on this matter, but the different age ranges and the reporting decisions (counts per minute or PA levels) makes it hard to accurately compare the results.…”

“…The health benefits of physical activity (PA) are evident in adulthood (Lee et al, 2012), but indicative results also show that in preschool-aged children, PA is a preventive factor for cardio-vascular diseases (Saakslahti et al, 2004), improved metabolism (Metcalf, Voss, Hosking, Jeffery, & Wilkin, 2008) and body composition especially regarding fat (Dunton et al, 2012;Moore et al, 2003). Despite the concurrent knowledge of health benefits, the worldwide recommendation of one hour of at least moderate PA for preschool-aged children per day (WHO, 2010) seems hard to achieve (Colley et al, 2011;Jago et al, 2014). The official Finnish recommendations (Sosiaali-ja terveysministeriö, 2016) of brisk PA of 120 minutes per day have not been fulfilled by preschool-aged children (Soini et al, 2014).…”

“…When it comes to parental influence through parents' own PA habits, a recent review (Xu, Wen, & Rissel, 2015) showed that parents' encouragement, support and role modelling could result in higher levels of their children's PA. Nevertheless, to the authors' knowledge, few studies have investigated objectively and simultaneously measured PA for preschool-aged children and their parents, showing positive but mainly weak associations between parental and child PA (Jago et al, 2014;Moore et al, 1991;Ruiz, Gesell, Buchowski, Lambert, & Barkin, 2011;Taylor et al, 2009). Regarding sedentary time, earlier studies using objective measures in preschool-aged children have found that seasonality plays a limited role in sedentary time with lower sedentary time in summer and fall compared with spring (Fisher et al, 2005); no association with sedentary time and gender exists (Vanderloo & Tucker, 2015); nor association with socio-economic status and sedentary time (Kelly et al, 2006).…”

Parental influence on the physical activity of Chinese children

“…The findings indicated that the explicit modelling and MVPA of fathers were significantly related to the MVPA duration of boys, whereas the explicit modelling of mothers was significantly associated with the MVPA of girls. These findings further support the notion that parental support and MVPA are crucial in shaping MVPA in elementary and middle school-aged children (Craig et al, 2013;Davison, 2004;Davison and Jago, 2009;Davison et al, 2003;Jago et al, 2010Jago et al, , 2014Raudsepp, 2006). Fathers and mothers who serve as good role models effectively promote boys' and girls' MVPA participation respectively.…”