The relationship between girls' (8-14 years) physical activity and maternal education

Mothers with higher levels of education are more likely to engage in health-promoting behaviour; thus, it is intuitive that a child's physical activity would be positively related to maternal education. The literature on this area, however, is inconclusive and may be due to the methods used to assess physical activity (i.e. the use of aggregated and self-reported physical activity that may not reflect the true and detailed variation of physical activity).

To profile the physical activity behaviours of girls with mothers of differing educational attainment.

77 girls (grades 4-8) wore an Actical accelerometer for 7 days. Minutes spent sedentary and in light, moderate and vigorous physical activity per day over 7 days, 5 weekdays, 2 weekends, and 1 h commuting period to and from school of girls of University educated (UE) and non-UE mothers were analysed.

After controlling for confounders, girls with UE mothers were more likely to participate in vigorous physical activity at the weekend and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during the morning commute to school.

Research investigating the relationship between maternal education and child's physical activity should explore, at higher resolution, when activity is accumulated, in particular separating weekday and weekend physical activity.