The Role of Family Time Together in Meeting the Recommendation for Physical Activity among Primary School Children

Abstract

Family time may have an influence on children’s physical activity (PA) participation or may contribute to increased sedentary behaviour. The aim of this paper was to examine whether spending family time is associated with the PA of children aged 10–11. Cross-sectional data on 158 primary school children (80 girls and 78 boys) with a mean age of 10.6 ± 0.49 years were collected. Weight and height were used to calculate body mass index. The level of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was determined with a physical activity screening measure. Participants wore a Vivofit® wrist band activity tracker to measure their daily number of steps. The Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children questionnaire was used to obtain information from children about the frequency of activities undertaken by the family. Analyses entailed descriptive statistics of the total sample and by gender, t-test, and the Mann–Whitney U-test to examine the gender differences and Spearman’s correlation coefficients. It was found that 32.3% of the children did not accomplish at least 60 min per day on ≥5 of the seven days and more than 75.9% of them did not accumulate at least 12,000 or more steps daily. More boys than girls tended to be sufficiently active and met the guideline of at least 60 min per day on ≥5 of the seven days (70.5% and 65.0%, respectively) or 12,000 steps per day (25.8% and 10.0%, respectively). The number of steps during the weekday was significantly and inversely associated both in girls and in boys with active family time (r = −0.27 and r = −0.25, respectively), and with total family time (r = −0.28) and non-active family time (r = −0.25) only in boys. Average MVPA was also inversely correlated with active family time (r = −0.31), non-active family time (r = −0.24), and total family time (r = −0.29) in boys. The correlation effect size values ranged between small to medium significant differences for these measures. The findings underscore the need for community-based PA programmes designed for whole families to meet the recommended PA of children and also to develop and promote active leisure activities among families.

Family promotion of children's healthy lifestyles during theCOVID‐19 pandemic in light of Saudi Vision 2030

“…Parents should be aware of WHO guidelines for how children practice physical activity and guide them on how to present the training session. These results are consistent with the Korcz et al ( 2020 ) study, which indicated the need for community‐based PA programs designed for whole families to meet the recommended PA of children and also to develop an active lifestyle among families. Al‐Hazzaa and AlMarzooqi ( 2018 ) indicated that there are many initiatives aimed at promoting PA in Saudi Arabia.…”

Impact of COVID-19 Restrictions on Western Australian Children’s Physical Activity and Screen Time

“…Another implication of this study’s findings is the importance of supporting families, in particular parents, around guidance on how they can facilitate children’s unstructured PA. Beyond pandemics, families are an important influence on children’s PA behaviour [ 38 , 39 , 40 ]. Adapting existing resources to support parents in providing more PA opportunities for their children at home is a feasible intervention that can be undertaken should subsequent COVID-19 waves occur (see the KIDDO program resources as an example ( ) accessed on 1 March 2021).…”

The Role of the Neighborhood Social Environment in Physical Activity among Hispanic Children: Moderation by Cultural Factors and Mediation by Neighborhood Norms

“…In addition, our study did not include individual-level psychological factors such as self-efficacy, motivation, and social desirability [ 39 ]. Finally, there are other factors that were not included in this analysis that may affect physical activity, such as parents’ physical activity, spending time with family, psychological stress, language barriers, acculturation, enculturation, and discriminative experiences [ 40 , 41 ]. Further research should explore these various characteristics as determinants of physical activity.…”