Association between parent and child physical activity: a systematic review

Abstract

Background: Childhood represents an important life stage for establishment of physical activity (PA) habits. Parents are assumed to play an important role in influencing children's PA. Earlier reviews have mainly focused on parental modelling, encouragement, and support for PA, rather than the actual PA levels of parents. Therefore, the purpose of this review was to systematically summarize the evidence on the relationship between parent and child PA. Methods: Papers were identified using electronic databases and manual searches of reference lists. Papers reporting on associations between objectively measured child PA and at least one measure of parental PA were included. The quality of the papers was assessed using a modified version of the ROBINS-I tool. For interpretation of the results across studies, we produced albatross plots for all studies combined and by age-groups, sex of the parents, sex of the child, methodology of assessment of parental PA, and type of PA. Results: Thirty-nine papers were included with sample size of parent-child dyads ranging from 15 to 1267 (mean = 319 dyads, median = 227 dyads). The majority of studies were published from 2008 to 2018 and used accelerometry to assess PA. Most of the studies were classified as having moderate, serious, or critical risk of bias. The albatross plot for all studies combined showed that the clear majority of studies observed a positive relationship between parent and child PA. The plot suggested an average magnitude of correlation across studies to be around 0.13, and the overall impression was that this was fairly similar across child age-groups and gender of parent-child dyads. Studies using objective assessment of parental PA showed stronger relationship between parent and child PA compared with studies using self-report (average magnitude of correlation around 0.16 vs 0.04 respectively). No clear evidence was found for the strength of relationship being dependent on type of PA measure of parent and child (total PA, moderate-to-vigorous PA, steps), however, the relationship for light PA appeared weaker. Conclusion: This systematic review showed that the clear majority of studies observed a weak positive relationship between parent and child PA regardless of age of the child, the gender of the parent-child dyad, and type of PA. Trial registration: Registration in PROSPERO: CRD42019093462.

Sedentary Behaviors Of A School Population In Brazil And Related Factors Descriptive Research With Questionnaire

“…This nding is similar to other ones found in previous studies, in which the important role of the family appears to be related to sedentary behaviours of children [28,29,30,31]. In fact, parents' lifestyle habits are the main predictors of the time spent watching television by schoolchildren [32,33,34].…”

Gaelic4Girls—The Effectiveness of a 10-Week Multicomponent Community Sports-Based Physical Activity Intervention for 8 to 12-Year-Old Girls

“…The co-participation (e.g., performing physical activities together) and modelling communicative support structures may have led to increased parental social support and involvement with their daughter's engagement in the program. Studies have examined both friend and family support for PA, and results have shown that some studies have found a positive association [14,15,105,106], while others have not [16]. Results of the current study are in line with Seabra et al [107] who examined correlates of PA in schoolchildren aged 8-10 years, and found that perceived acceptance by peers in sports, and parental encouragement was positively related to PA in girls (n = 683).…”

Prevalence and Correlates of Adherence to The Combined Movement Guidelines Among Czech Children and Adolescents

“…For example, Angoorani and colleagues [42] found higher odds of having low PA level and high ST in children whose parents were overweight or obese. One possible explanation for our results could be that parental obesogenic behaviors (e.g., insu cient PA, overuse of electronic devices) and shared home environment (e.g., television in bedroom, a variety of household electronic devices) are associated with decreased level of PA, excessive ST, and short sleep duration in children [43][44][45]. For this reason, interventions to promote healthy movement behaviors during childhood need to involve the parents.…”