Relationship of parental health-related behaviours and physical fitness in girls and boys

Journal of Public Health, Sep 2014

Aim Physical activity (PA) and physical fitness (PF) are known to be closely connected. Various environmental and biological constraints have been shown to influence children’s PA with parents being among strong determinants of their children’s PA behaviour. However, little is known about parental influence on PF in children. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify the influence of parental health-related behaviours and attitudes on PF in boys and girls. Subjects and methods Baseline data of 1,875 primary school children (7.1 ± 0.6 years; 50 % male) were included in the analyses. Lateral jumping performance was used as a proxy for whole-body coordination and the 6-min run for cardiovascular fitness. Parental health-related behaviours, attitudes and sociodemographic variables were assessed via questionnaire. Regression analyses, adjusting for age and BMI, were performed separately for boys and girls. Results The final models of the regression analyses showed that children’s age and BMI are significantly related to PF. Mothers’ self-efficacy to encourage their children to be active is significantly associated with boys’ coordination and cardiovascular fitness and girls’ coordination. Mothers’ PA affects PF in boys, not in girls. Maternal smoking has a significantly negative effect on both boys’ and girls’ cardiovascular fitness. Conclusion This study shows that parental health-related behaviours and self-efficacy to encourage their children to be active affect children’s PF. Influencing factors, however, differ in girls and boys, and mothers seem especially influential.

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Relationship of parental health-related behaviours and physical fitness in girls and boys

Nanette Erkelenz Anja C. Schreiber Susanne Kobel Sarah Kettner Clemens Drenowatz Jrgen M. Steinacker Aim Physical activity (PA) and physical fitness (PF) are known to be closely connected. Various environmental and biological constraints have been shown to influence children's PA with parents being among strong determinants of their children's PA behaviour. However, little is known about parental influence on PF in children. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify the influence of parental healthrelated behaviours and attitudes on PF in boys and girls. Subjects and methods Baseline data of 1,875 primary school children (7.1 0.6 years; 50 % male) were included in the analyses. Lateral jumping performance was used as a proxy for whole-body coordination and the 6-min run for cardiovascular fitness. Parental health-related behaviours, attitudes and sociodemographic variables were assessed via questionnaire. Regression analyses, adjusting for age and BMI, were performed separately for boys and girls. Results The final models of the regression analyses showed that children's age and BMI are significantly related to PF. Mothers' self-efficacy to encourage their children to be active is significantly associated with boys' coordination and cardiovascular fitness and girls' coordination. Mothers' PA affects PF in boys, not in girls. Maternal smoking has a significantly negative effect on both boys' and girls' cardiovascular fitness. Conclusion This study shows that parental health-related behaviours and self-efficacy to encourage their children to be active affect children's PF. Influencing factors, however, differ in girls and boys, and mothers seem especially influential. - It is well documented that sufficient physical activity (PA) and moderate to high levels of cardiovascular fitness are essential for childhood development and have numerous health benefits in children and adolescents (Ekelund et al. 2007). PA during childhood and adolescence is beneficially associated with body fatness and well-being at young adult age (Boreham and Riddoch 2001). For children, at least 60 min of moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) daily are recommended (WHO 2010). In order to increase cardiovascular fitness even more time in moderate to vigorous intensity activity is necessary (Andersen et al. 2006). Nevertheless, a considerable number of children currently do not meet these recommendations (Ekelund et al. 2011). Low PA levels during childhood are particularly alarming since the basis of adequate PA levels and an active lifestyle in adulthood are established during early childhood (Baker et al. 2007). Various environmental and biological factors have been shown to influence childrens PA (Kettner et al. 2012), and parents have been suggested to play a crucial role (Gustafson and Rhodes 2006). Results from studies on associations between parental activity behaviour and childrens PA, however, have been equivocal (Gustafson and Rhodes 2006; Trost and Loprinzi 2011). It seems that parental PA is not necessarily key for childrens PA, whereas parental support and encouragement were found to be more important than being an active role model (Trost et al. 2003). PA and physical fitness (PF) are known to be closely connected, whilst an increase in PA mostly leads to increases in PF (Dencker et al. 2006). Therefore, not only childrens PA is influenced by biological and environmental factors; they also appear to play an important role in childrens PF levels (Ortega et al. 2008). Additionally, PF, especially cardiovascular fitness, is known to have favourable effects on health in children and adolescents (Ekelund et al. 2007). In a large-scale European study of children and adolescents an independent association between cardiorespiratory fitness and PA with metabolic risk factors has been shown (Ekelund et al. 2007). At this time, little is known about parental influence on childrens PF as previous studies mainly focussed on parental PA and childrens PF (Cleland et al. 2005; Martn-Matillas et al. 2012). Overall, these studies showed a positive relationship between parental PA and childrens PF. An early study analysed the influence of parental encouragement and attitudes on childrens PF (McMurray et al. 1993) but found no associations. Recent research, however, has shown an association between paternal encouragement and adolescents cardiorespiratory fitness (Martn-Matillas et al. 2012). Whilst parental PA has been shown to be associated with cardiorespiratory fitness in children (Cleland et al. 2005), there is hardly any research focusing on parental health-related behaviours and their confidence to encourage their children to be physically active and the effects this has on boys and girls PF. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify the influence of parental health-related behaviours and self-efficacyto encourage PA on PF in boys and girls. Design and participants Baseline data of 1,875 primary school children (7. (...truncated)


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Nanette Erkelenz, Anja C. Schreiber, Susanne Kobel, Sarah Kettner, Clemens Drenowatz, Jürgen M. Steinacker. Relationship of parental health-related behaviours and physical fitness in girls and boys, Journal of Public Health, 2014, pp. 407-414, Volume 22, Issue 5, DOI: 10.1007/s10389-014-0636-5