Parent and child physical activity and sedentary time: Do active parents foster active children?

Abstract

BackgroundPhysical activity has many positive effects on children's health while TV viewing has been associated with adverse health outcomes. Many children do not meet physical activity recommendations and exceed TV viewing guidelines. Parents are likely to be an important influence on their children's behaviour. There is an absence of information about the associations between parents' and children's physical activity and TV viewing.MethodsYear 6 children and their parent were recruited from 40 primary schools. Results are presented for the 340 parent-child dyads with accelerometer data that met a ≥ 3 day inclusion criteria and the 431 parent-child dyads with complete self-reported TV viewing. Over 80% of the dyads with valid TV viewing data included mothers and their child. Mean minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), minutes of sedentary time per day and counts per minute were assessed by accelerometer. Self-reported hours of TV viewing were coded into 3 groups (< 2 hours per day, 2-4 hours per day and >4 hours per day. Linear and multi-nominal regression models were run by child gender to examine parent-child associations.ResultsIn linear regression models there was an association for the overall sedentary time of girls and their parents (t = 2.04. p = .020) but there was no association between girls' and parents' physical activity. There were no associations between parents' and boys' sedentary or physical activity time. For girls, the risk of watching more than 4 hours of TV per day, (reference = 2 hours of TV per day), was 3.67 times higher if the girl's parent watched 2-4 hours of TV per day (p = 0.037). For boys, the risk of watching more than 4 hours of TV per day, was 10.47 times higher if the boy's parent watched more than 4 hours of TV per day (p = 0.038).ConclusionsThere are associations in the sedentary time of parents and daughters. Higher parental TV viewing was associated with an increased risk of high levels of TV viewing for both boys and girls. There were no associations between the time that parents and children spend engaged in physical activity.

Activity Levels in Mothers and Their Preschool Children

“…13,14 This is likely due in part to varying study methods, and in particular the widespread use of self-report measures of physical activity. 22,23 Using an objective measure of physical activity (accelerometers 20 and pedometers 24 ), studies in older children report positive associations between children' s and parents' physical activity. In preschool-aged children, several small studies also reported positive associations between child' s and maternal, 17 paternal, 10,17 and parental physical activity levels 23 by using objectively measured activity.…”

The Relationship Between Parents’ and Children’s Television Viewing

“…[8][9][10][11][12][13] Child TVV is also affected by coviewing, eating meals while watching television, and the establishment of household rules and regulations about media use, such as limits on the amount of television time. 14,15 Household access to television, in particular, having a television in the child' s bedroom, is associated with increased television time.…”

Parenting Practices that can Prevent or Reduce Childhood Obesity

“…The more parents watch television, engage in other leisure time screen-related sedentary activities, or simply spend time being inactive, the higher the risk is that their children will too (e.g., He, Harris, Piche, & Beynon, 2009;Jago, Fox, Page, Brockman, & Thompson, 2010).…”