Activity-Related Parenting Practices and Children’s Objectively Measured Physical Activity

This study examined the relationship between activity-related parenting practices and children's objectively measured physical activity (PA) in 117 UK children (mean age 8.3 +/- 0.95). No significant gender differences in the mean level of activity support were identified although it was found that mothers and fathers favored different activity-related parenting practices. Mothers provided higher levels of limiting sedentary behavior for both boys and girls compared with fathers as well as higher levels of logistic support for girls than fathers. Results showed that for boys, paternal explicit modeling was significantly associated with MVPA (r = .31) and VPA (r = .37). Overall, mothers and fathers favored different activity-related parenting practices when encouraging their children to be active and explicit modeling from fathers appears to be important in shaping physical activity in boys.