Physical activity among adolescents: The role of various kinds of parental support

Abstract

The objectives of this study were (a) to examine the association between various kinds of parental social support and adolescents' physical activity (PA) and (b) to examine whether various kinds of social support from mothers and fathers were differently associated with boys' and girls' PA. Data came from the Aarhus School Survey that included 2100 schoolchildren at 11, 13, and 15 years of age. Parental social support for PA was measured by items about encouragement to do PA, doing joint PA, parents watching PA, and talking about PA. PA was measured as at least 4 h of vigorous PA per week during leisure time. We used logistic regression analyses to estimate the associations for girls and boys separately, adjusted by age group, parents' occupational social class, family structure, and migration status. There were significant and graded associations between adolescents' PA and all four dimensions of parental support for PA. The association patterns were similar for mothers' and fathers' social support and similar for girls and boys. Social processes in the family are important for adolescents' participation in PA. It is important to continue to explore these social processes in order to understand why some adolescents are physically active and others are not.

Associations Between Parenting Factors, Motivation, and Physical Activity in Overweight African American Adolescents

“…Emotional support from parents was negatively associated with MVPA and LPA in the full models, and follow-up analysis demonstrated that this effect was more strongly shown for adolescent males. This is in contrast to several previous studies that found positive associations [33,55,75,[98][99][100] or no association [32,101] between PA and emotional support. However, previous investigators who examined the relationship between emotional support and PA in predominantly African American sample have found positive associations for LPA, but no relationship between emotional support and MVPA [56].…”

Parental and Peer Support are Associated with Physical Activity in Adolescents: Evidence from 74 Countries

“…In certain conservative cultures, however, parental, especially mother's education has been found to have an influence on girls' PA [35]. A study conducted in Denmark found that while adolescent girls received significantly higher level of encouragement from their mothers, a higher proportion of boys than girls reported fathers watched them when they were physically active [12]. This suggests that there may be different dimensions of parental support in adolescents' PA, which deserve further investigation particularly in a diverse cultural context.…”

“…Studies examining gender differences in parental support have yielded mixed results. While a number of studies have reported no significant differences in the influence of fathers or mothers on their children's PA [11,12], there is evidence to suggest that parents may provide greater support for PA to boys compared to girls [13,14]. However, little is known about the interactions between parental support and environmental factors (e.g., safety, access to PA facilities) or cultural factors (e.g., ethnicity, social class, gender expectation) which may influence children's PA.…”

Results From Denmark’s 2016 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth

“…29 In addition, data from the Aarhus School Survey, including 2100 children at 11, 13, and 15 years of age, examined the importance of families and peers for children's sports participation. 30,31 Overall, the identified data indicated a close relationship between parents and their children's participation in sports: if both parents take part in sport, 91% of their children also participate in sport. If none of the parents practices sport, 79% of the children participate in sport.…”