Links between Adolescents’ Engagement in Physical Activity and Their Attachment to Mothers, Fathers, and Peers

Abstract

Physical activity (PA) is one of the key components in promoting a healthy lifestyle in children. PA offers a number of health benefits to children and their families. However, a large proportion of children do not meet the current PA guidelines (at least 60 min of PA daily). The problem of insufficient PA could be explained in relation to early childhood when attachment between the child and the parent begins and family habits are formed. As a result, physical inactivity in adolescence is associated with negative health outcomes such as obesity, heart diseases, and cardiometabolic risk. Therefore, this study is aimed at examining the links between adolescents’ engagement in physical activity and their attachment to their mother, father, and peers (trust, communication, alienation) as well as their socio-economic status (SES). We applied a quantitative cross-sectional study design. A total of 835 students aged from 15 to 18 (females = 480 and males = 355, M age = 16.0, SD = 1.1) completed the questionnaire. This study revealed that physical activity had a weak positive correlation to mother (r = 0.13, p = 0.01) and father attachment (r = 0.18, p = 0.01), trust (r = 0.17, p = 0.01), and communication (r = 0.16, p = 0.01) with both parents and a weak negative correlation with father alienation (r = 0.13, p = 0.01). The overall study results show that adolescent communication to father, male gender, a younger age, and a higher SES are important factors in relation to adolescent physical activity.

Influencia Del Género, Nivel Educativo Y Práctica Deportiva De Los Progenitores Sobre Hábitos Deportivos en Escolares

“…A pesar de que su influencia sobre los estereotipos de género parece ser reducida, los progenitores siguen siendo fundamentales por la influencia que ejercen en los adolescentes para comenzar a practicar actividades deportivas. Estos resultados siguen la misma línea de las investigaciones previas (BRINGOLF-ISLER et al, 2018;CHENG;MENDONÇA;FARIAS-JUNIOR, 2014;HENRIKSEN et al, 2016;LISINSKIENE;JUSKELIENE, 2019;MENDONÇA et al, 2014). Por tanto, se plantea la hipótesis de que realizar intervenciones tempranas con los progenitores podría ser beneficioso para concienciarlos sobre el rol que desempeñan en la práctica deportiva de sus hijos, lo que podría favorecer que la influencia posterior ejercida sobre los adolescentes fuese beneficiosa; teniendo que ser esta hipótesis contrastada en futuras investigaciones.…”

“…Además, el nivel de práctica de las chicas parece estar influido en mayor medida que el de los chicos (HENRIKSEN et al, 2016). Por tanto, la frecuencia y duración de práctica de los progenitores parece estar relacionada con la de los adolescentes, pero la información disponible en la literatura científica no permite extraer conclusiones concisas ya que cada uno de los progenitores podría influir en aspectos diferentes de la misma (CHENG; MENDONÇA; FARIAS-JUNIOR, 2014;LISINSKIENE;JUSKELIENE, 2019).…”

The Impact of Sports and Physical Activities on Assertiveness in University Students

“…For instance, Small et al (2013) reported that college-aged children who communicate well with parents tend to have a higher level of PA 31) . Furthermore, low assertiveness and communication skills can be regarded as factors of physical inactivity (Lisinskiene and Juskeliene, 2019 32) ). These findings and the evidence from this study emphasize that intervention to increase PA levels is important for university students with low assertiveness.…”

Perceived Barriers towards Physical Activity among Female University Students

“…It is a significant and growing problem that students are currently facing. Parents, teachers, and other key role models are increasingly encouraged to incorporate PA into the daily lifestyle of students (Lisinskiene & Juskeliene, 2019). Furthermore, the lack of PA among students is attributed to their busy lives, and studies have indicated that university students have related physical inactivity problems (Fagaras et al, 2015).…”