What Hispanic parents do to encourage and discourage 3-5 year old children to be active: a qualitative study using nominal group technique

Abstract

PurposeHispanic preschoolers are less active than their non-Hispanic peers. As part of a feasibility study to assess environmental and parenting influences on preschooler physical activity (PA) (Niños Activos), the aim of this study was to identify what parents do to encourage or discourage PA among Hispanic 3-5 year old children to inform the development of a new PA parenting practice instrument and future interventions to increase PA among Hispanic youth.MethodsNominal Group Technique (NGT), a structured multi-step group procedure, was used to elicit and prioritize responses from 10 groups of Hispanic parents regarding what parents do to encourage (5 groups) or discourage (5 groups) preschool aged children to be active. Five groups consisted of parents with low education (less than high school) and 5 with high education (high school or greater) distributed between the two NGT questions.ResultsTen NGT groups (n = 74, range 4-11/group) generated 20-46 and 42-69 responses/group for practices that encourage or discourage PA respectively. Eight to 18 responses/group were elected as the most likely to encourage or discourage PA. Parental engagement in child activities, modeling PA, and feeding the child well were identified as parenting practices that encourage child PA. Allowing TV and videogame use, psychological control, physical or emotional abuse, and lack of parental engagement emerged as parenting practices that discourage children from being active. There were few differences in the pattern of responses by education level.ConclusionsParents identified ways they encourage and discourage 3-5 year-olds from PA, suggesting both are important targets for interventions. These will inform the development of a new PA parenting practice scale to be further evaluated. Further research should explore the role parents play in discouraging child PA, especially in using psychological control or submitting children to abuse, which were new findings in this study.

Hispanic Mothers’ Views of the Fathers’ Role in Promoting Healthy Behaviors at Home: Focus Group Findings

“…Turner et al 11 reported that fathers involving children in physical activities, like playing soccer, and fathers with an authoritative or authoritarian parenting style promoted family PA. Fathers’ PA modeling and monitoring behaviors are important for child obesity prevention. A qualitative study with Hispanic parents of 3-to-5-year-old children reported that parental modeling for PA activity encouraged children’s PA. 14 Parental monitoring has also been associated with higher levels of PA in a multiethnic sample of school-age children. 52 In a sample of 81 Latino preschool-aged children attending Head Start, 90.1% exceeded U.S. recommendations for daily PA of at least 120 m/day, and had more PA on the weekends than on weekdays.…”

“…9,10 While qualitative studies have reported Hispanic parents’ views of their role in promoting healthy food behaviors at home, 2,11–13 few studies have described parents’ views regarding fostering PA behaviors. 11,13,14 Hispanic parents’ engagement in child activities, and modeling PA, were identified as practices that encouraged preschoolers’ PA. 14 Turning the television off was discussed by Hispanic parents as an important strategy to help overweight children lose weight. 13 Mexican and Mexican-American fathers participating in focus groups described employing an authoritarian or authoritative approach to family PA and being more physically active than mothers.…”

Correlates of Physical Activity in Latino Preschool Children Attending Head Start

“…We were unable to include 15 children in our analyses due to insufficient accelerometry or covariate data. Further it did not include any built environment measures or measures of parenting practices, both of which may influence children’s PA (36,37,58). The cross-sectional design limits our ability to determine the directionality of associations.…”

Physical Activity and Screen-Media–Related Parenting Practices Have Different Associations with Children's Objectively Measured Physical Activity

“…Our qualitative studies with Hispanic parents of preschool children found that parents reported they restricted TV viewing for their child to encourage them to be more physically active. 20 It is not known whether this parenting strategy ultimately affects preschool children's PA. Even less is known about whether parents of older children (9-12 years of age) implement screen-media parenting practices to influence their child's PA (e.g., do parents who restrict their child's sedentary behaviors hope to thereby encourage their child to be more physically active?).…”