Parental social support, perceived competence and enjoyment in school physical activity

Abstract

BackgroundBeginning in the elementary school years, there are differences among children on how they perceive their competence in physical activity (PA). Children's competence perceptions may influence their affective reactions to PA. A crucial question is how to motivate children who hold low competence perceptions to enhance their enjoyment and PA involvement. Because parents play critical roles in children's development and socialization, social support from parents can be an important factor to complement teachers' effort to enhance children's enjoyment and PA involvement. In this research we identified the associations among children's beliefs about parental social support, perceived competence, and enjoyment in school PA.MethodsThree hundred and twenty children (9–11 years old) participated in a two-wave study. At the first wave, children completed questionnaires measuring their beliefs about parental social support, perceived competence, and enjoyment in school PA; they reported their enjoyment again 8 months later at the second wave.ResultsBoth concurrent and longitudinal analyses revealed that beliefs about parental social support were important factors associated with children's enjoyment in school PA, especially among girls with low competence perceptions.ConclusionFamily socialization factors should be taken into consideration. The efficacy of individual and community-level strategies should be included and evaluated when designing effective intervention strategies that enhance children's PA in school.

A grounded theory of how social support influences physical activity in adolescent girls

“…Cross-sectional studies have consistently shown that self-efficacy is a mediating variable between social support and PA (Motl, Dishman, Saunders, Dowda, & Pate, 2007; Peterson, Lawman, Wilson, Fairchild, & Van Horn, 2013; Wing, Bélanger, & Brunet, 2016). That is, social support may enhance an individual’s self-efficacy to overcome barriers to PA, and this enhanced self-efficacy is associated with greater PA. Other studies have highlighted that lack of time, lack of interest and enjoyment may also mediate the relationship between social support and PA (Shen et al, 2016; Verloigne et al, 2014; Wing et al, 2016), but these findings are based on only three studies. This suggests that a lack of social support may lead to young people being uninterested in PA and perceive barriers, such as lack of time, to PA.…”

Correlates of Participation in Sports and Physical Activities among Indigenous Youth

“…Parental involvement in this capacity may be related to parental support, which has been positively associated with non-Indigenous youth's activity levels (Sterdt et al 2013;Yao and Rhodes 2015). In a study done in the United States, Shen and colleagues found that parental social support could enhance children's enjoyment of participation in physical activity during school hours (Shen et al 2016). Thus, the provision of parental support for and involvement in the development of physical activity programs may foster youth's tendencies to participate in more active behaviours (Kerpan and Humbert 2015;Lavallée and Lévesque 2013).…”

Entendiendo la percepción de las madres sobre la actividad física de los niños y niñas

“…Las autorizaciones adicionales a las aquí delimitadas se pueden obtener en el correo: educare@una.cr Revista Electrónica Educare (Educare Electronic Journal) EISSN: 1409-4258 Vol. 23(2) MAYO-AGOSTO, 2019:1-18 the family environment has been pointed out by Shen et al (2016), especially in the development of behavioral skills and strategies that could eventually permeate the family environment.…”

“…According to the ecological model, the second level of influence for promoting active behavior in children is that provided by parents (Shen et al, 2016). Within this level, different types of social support can be provided by mothers to motivate their children to be active, such Revista Electrónica Educare (Educare Electronic Journal) EISSN: 1409-4258 Vol.…”