Parent-Child Physical Activity Association in Families with 4- to 16-Year-Old Children

Dagmar Sigmundová, Erik Sigmund, Petr Badura and Tomáš Hollein
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Dagmar Sigmundová: Faculty of Physical Culture, Palacký University Olomouc, 77147 Olomouc, Czech Republic
Erik Sigmund: Faculty of Physical Culture, Palacký University Olomouc, 77147 Olomouc, Czech Republic
Petr Badura: Faculty of Physical Culture, Palacký University Olomouc, 77147 Olomouc, Czech Republic
Tomáš Hollein: Faculty of Physical Culture, Palacký University Olomouc, 77147 Olomouc, Czech Republic

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-12

Abstract: Background: The main aim of this study was to quantify the associations between parents’ and children’s physical activity by age, gender, and the day of the week on the basis of a pedometer-measured step count (SC). Methods: The sample comprised data from 4-to 16-year-old children and their parents from the Czech Republic (1102 mother-child dyads and 693 father-child dyads). The parents and their children wore the Yamax SW200 pedometer during seven days of monitoring. Results: The strongest SC association was found between mothers and daughters aged 4–7.9 years on weekdays (r p = 0.402; p < 0.01) and at weekends (r p = 0.577; p < 0.01). In children aged 8–16, the parent-child association is gender-specific, with the father-son relationship being dominant, especially at weekends (weekend SC: fathers-sons 8–11.9 y r p = 0.416, p < 0.01; fathers-sons 12–16 y r p = 0.443, p < 0.01). An increase of 1000 steps in the fathers (mothers) is associated with an increase of more than 400 (200) steps in their sons (daughters). Conclusions: This study confirms a strong parent-child SC relationship in children younger than eight years of age. In older children, the parent-child SC association is gender-specific and dominated by the father-son relationship, particularly on weekends. The SC associations that are revealed can be used for the development of physical activity programs for adolescents.

Keywords: family; step count; dyads; children; adolescents; physical activity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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