Elsevier

Public Health

Volume 129, Issue 9, September 2015, Pages 1218-1223
Public Health

Original Research
Correlates and moderators of physical activity in parent-tween dyads: a socio-ecological perspective

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2015.05.019Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Promoting physical activity (PA) at the family level might represent an efficient way to improve population health.

  • Different strategies would be required to promote PA among families living with boys or girls.

  • Interventions aimed at increasing PA should focus on low socio-economic status families living with girls.

Abstract

Objectives

The identification of correlates and moderators of physical activity (PA) among parents and their children can support the development of more effective interventions. The aims of this study were to identify individual- and family-level predictors of PA among parent-tween dyads and to examine the moderating role of socio-economic status (SES) on these associations.

Study design

As part of a larger investigation, a cross-sectional telephone survey was conducted in 2012 among 1000 parent-child dyads.

Methods

Children were aged between nine and 13 years (tweens). Frequency of participation in PA was self-reported by means of questionnaires. Multilevel modelling was used. Individual predictors included body mass index and sedentary lifestyles whereas family-level predictors included parents' cognitions, family co-participation in PA, and socio-economic characteristics.

Results

Significant between-dyad variability in PA was observed among parent-daughter dyads (n = 470, ICC = 0.17, P < 0.001) but not parent-son dyads (n = 520, ICC = 0.01, P = 0.37). Sedentary activity (ps < 0.001) and co-participation in PA (ps < 0.001) were associated with greater PA. Positive parental perceptions of facilitating factors and greater self-efficacy were associated with PA among parent-daughter dyads (ps < 0.04) while parents' outcomes expectancies were associated with PA among parent-son dyads (P = 0.04). The relationship between facilitating factors and PA was moderated by SES (education) among parent-daughter dyads (P = 0.009).

Conclusions

Promoting co-participation in PA and less sedentary activities appear as useful targets for increasing PA among parents and tweens. Additional strategies might be considered according to the sex of the children and family SES. Future research addressing socio-economic inequalities in the correlates of PA among families with tween girls is required.

Introduction

Regular participation in physical activity (PA) is associated with numerous short- and long-term health benefits among children.1 However, few children are meeting PA recommendations worldwide and interventions have shown modest impacts.2, 3 According to the mediated model of behaviour change,4 key steps to developing effective interventions include the identification of variables associated with the behaviour of interest. Although a significant number of studies have examined determinants of PA from a socio-cognitive psychology perspective,5 the adoption of a socio-ecological perspective may further broaden our understanding of this behaviour.6 According to the ecological model, an overarching understanding of health-related behaviours must include complex interactions between personal characteristics, perception of the environment, family and social networks, and built and policy environments.

With regard to children's PA, sex, self-efficacy, neighbourhood walkability, and proximity to recreation facilities have frequently been associated with this behaviour.7 Family support is among the most consistently observed familial sources of influence, although overall evidence regarding the role of families remains inconclusive.7 In line with these findings, the limited effects of family-based interventions on children's PA support the need to develop models explaining how families impact on PA.8 One major limitation of previous research is the adoption of an approach that independently examined perspectives of parents or children,9 thereby neglecting the known parent-child interactions within families.10 According to family systems theory,11 families can be viewed as a unique social system showing complex interactions between its members and hierarchical structures for goal pursuit. Indeed, it has recently been suggested that further developments in childhood obesity research would benefit from examining parent-child relationships as a significant part of children's environment.9 Another limitation of previous studies is the use of classical statistical procedures to investigate characteristics within nested datasets. This may lead to underestimation of standard errors and consequently lead to erroneous interpretations of findings.12 To our knowledge, few studies have adopted a dyadic perspective to investigate individual- and family-level correlates of PA13, 14 and no study has employed a statistical multilevel approach that accounts for shared variance within families. Thus, the first aim was to identify individual- and family-level correlates of PA using a dyadic analysis approach.

From a public health perspective, socio-economic status (SES) is a significant social determinant of health.15 Although direct associations between SES and children's PA are less clear, some inequalities in PA have been reported for adolescents.16 Moreover, it was reported that children may have different PA perceptions or beliefs according to their SES and that variations in cognitions according to SES may partially explain the relationship between SES and health-related behaviours.17, 18, 19 To date, the influence of SES on correlates of PA in both parents and their children has been seldom explored. Therefore, the second aim of the study was to examine the moderating role of SES on correlates of PA.

Section snippets

Methods

This study is a secondary analysis using baseline assessment data from a larger study aimed at ascertaining the impact of a multimedia communication campaign (the WIXX campaign) aimed at promoting PA among 9–13 year-old children.20, 21 This cross-sectional survey was conducted among a representative sample of 1000 parents and their children. Data were collected during the spring of 2012 using a random digit dialing telephone procedure. Sampling was stratified according to the seventeen

Results

The characteristics of the overall sample appear in Table 1. The sample consisted of 357 mother-daughter, 393 mother-son, 117 father-daughter, and 133 father-son dyads (χ2[N = 1000] = 0.5, P = 0.83). There was no significant difference between boys and girls in terms of socio-economic variables as well as for parents' PA, sitting time, and co-participation (ps > 0.07). However, boys (M = 10.6 s/wk, SD = 2.8) were significantly more active than girls (M = 9.8 s/wk, SD = 2.8; t(716) = 3.8, P

Discussion

In line with existing knowledge regarding family PA,30 the present findings revealed a shared pattern of PA (17.4%) in families living with a tween girl. This finding suggests the need to further examine correlates of PA among families as a whole rather than at the individual level solely. On the other hand, shared patterns of PA were not observed in families living with a boy, suggesting that boys might be more independent from their parents with regard to PA.14 One explanation of the present

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Human Research Ethics committee of the Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal.

Funding

Data collection of this study was financially supported by Québec en Forme; ABG was supported by a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research at the time of data analysis; LG held a CIHR/CRPO (Centre de recherche en prévention de l'obésité) Chair in Applied Public Health on Neighborhoods, Lifestyle, and Healthy Body Weight (Grant GIR, 99711 to the

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