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

Dagmar Sigmundová1, Erik Sigmund1, Petr Badura1

  • 1Faculty of Physical Culture, Palacký University Olomouc, 771 47 Olomouc, Czech Republic.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
|June 11, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Parental and child physical activity levels are linked, especially in younger children. In older children, father-son step counts correlate strongly, particularly on weekends, informing adolescent activity programs.

Area of Science:

  • Pedometrics
  • Child Health
  • Family Studies

Background:

  • Physical activity in children and parents is crucial for public health.
  • Understanding parent-child physical activity associations can inform interventions.
  • Pedometer-measured step count (SC) provides objective physical activity data.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To quantify parent-child physical activity associations.
  • To examine associations by child's age, gender, and day of the week.
  • To utilize pedometer-measured step count (SC) for analysis.

Main Methods:

  • Data collected from 1102 mother-child and 693 father-child dyads in the Czech Republic.
  • Children aged 4-16 years and their parents participated.
  • Yamax SW200 pedometers used for 7-day physical activity monitoring.

Main Results:

  • Strongest association: mothers and daughters (4-7.9 years) on weekdays (rp = 0.402) and weekends (rp = 0.577).
  • Older children (8-16 years): gender-specific associations, with father-son relationship dominant, especially weekends (e.g., fathers-sons 12-16 years, rp = 0.443).
  • A 1000-step increase in fathers/mothers correlated with >400/>200 steps in sons/daughters.

Conclusions:

  • Confirms strong parent-child step count (SC) relationship in children under eight.
  • In older children, SC association is gender-specific, dominated by father-son pairs on weekends.
  • Findings support developing targeted physical activity programs for adolescents.
Abstract

Keywords:
adolescentschildrendyadsfamilyphysical activitystep count

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