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Abstract
This study aimed to examine the association among parental moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), parental support, and the MVPA of children by gender. Participants comprised of 172 boys and 151 girls aged seven to 11 years old from three primary schools in Shanghai. Their parents were also included as research respondents. Accelerometers were utilized to measure MVPA duration among the children. Questionnaires that focused on parental support and MVPA were completed by the parents. Results indicated that only 4% of the children met the recommended MVPA duration of 60 minutes per day based on objective data. Parental support consisted of two constructs: logistic support and explicit modelling. Boys engaged in more MVPA than girls although no gender differences were noted in terms of the logistic support and explicit modelling of parents and their MVPA. A regression analysis revealed that 23.3% of the variance in MVPA for boys was explained by explicit modelling and MVPA of fathers. Moreover, 10.5% of the variance for girls was explained by the explicit modelling of mothers. Thus, parents should be highly encouraged to support the MVPA of their children by acting as role models. They can also enhance the MVPA of their children using different methods based on gender.
Introduction
Participation in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) provides health benefits including body weight control, cardiovascular function improvement, and lower blood pressure, and enhances psychological well-being (Warburton et al., 2006; World Health Organization, 2010). Childhood is a critical developmental period for the promotion of MVPA because its development early in life can continue into adulthood (Licence, 2004; Philippas and Lo, 2005). Evidence suggests that Chinese children remain inactive despite the health benefits of MVPA (Shi et al., 2006; Wang et al., 2013). The Chinese Student Healthy Behavior and Life Quality Survey (2008–2009) showed that only 18% of Chinese school students engaged in physical activity for 60 minutes per day and 40% of school students participated in less than 30 minutes per day of physical activity (Chinese Education Association, 2010). Wang et al. (2013) measured the MVPA of 2163 students from the 4th to 11th grades in 11 cities in China and found that Chinese city children and youth spend an average of 28.26 minutes per day in MVPA and 521.50 minutes per day in sedentary behaviour. Understanding the factors related to their MVPA engagement is necessary for increasing MVPA participation among Chinese children because such factors facilitate the development of interventions and government initiatives (Oliver et al., 2010; Raudsepp, 2006).
Several European and North American studies have reported that family members, especially parents, are among the key factors that influence the MVPA of children (Brunet et al., 2014; Campbell et al., 2001; Silva et al., 2014). Parents can affect the MVPA of their children by offering support (Brunet et al., 2014; Crespo et al., 2013; Davison, 2004; Silva et al., 2014; Wright et al., 2010), being physically active (Craig et al., 2013; Jago et al., 2010, 2014), sharing MVPA experiences (Bois et al., 2005), enjoying physical activity (Trost et al., 2003), showing a physically active attitude (McGuire et al., 2002), and parental bonding (Dzewaltowski et al., 2008). Gustafson and Rhodes (2006) reviewed 34 studies on parental correlates of a child’s MVPA and identified two major potential mechanisms of intergenerational relationship: parental support and the MVPA of parents.
The effect of various dimensions of parental support on the MVPA of children and adolescents has consistently identified a strong positive relationship (Brunet et al., 2014; Davison, 2004; Davison and Jago, 2009; Davison et al., 2003; Dilorenzo et al., 1998; Ferrao and Janssen, 2015; Hoefer et al., 2001; Kimiecik and Horn, 1998; McGiure et al., 2002; Raudsepp, 2006; Sallis et al., 1992; Silva et al., 2014; Trost et al., 2003; Wright et al., 2010). Encouraging activity (Dilorenzo et al., 1998; Ferrao and Janssen, 2015; McGuire et al., 2002), believing in the physical competency of the child (Kimiecik and Horn, 1998), and providing transportation to sporting events (Hoefer et al, 2001; Sallis et al., 1992) are specifically associated with high MVPA among children and adolescents. Davison et al. (2003) performed an in-depth analysis of particular parenting styles and divided parental support into two types: logistic support and explicit modelling. Parents who provide logistic support make provisions, such as enrolling their child in sports to enable him/her to become active, whereas parents who provide explicit modelling are intrinsically motivated to be active and use their behaviour to encourage their children to be physically active. Logistic support and explicit modelling have been confirmed as valid and reliable constructs in measuring parental support (Davison et al., 2003). In fact, the findings of some recent studies indicated the significant association between the logistic support and explicit modelling of parents with high MVPA among children and adolescents (Davison and Jago, 2009; Davison et al., 2003; Raudsepp, 2006). These two factors were further utilized in the current study to measure parental support.
Previous research has also investigated the relationship between parents’ MVPA and their children’s MVPA participation with mixed findings (e.g. Anderssen et al., 2006; Campbell et al., 2001; Craig et al., 2013; DiLorenzo et al., 1998; Jago et al., 2010, 2014; McGuire et al., 2002; Oliver et al., 2010; Trost et al., 2003; Welk et al., 2003). Several studies have reported that the children of parents who are physically active are more likely to participate in MVPA (Craig et al., 2013; Freedson and Evenson, 1991; Oliver et al., 2010; Welk et al., 2003; Yang et al., 1996). However, other studies reported weak or no correlation between the MVPA of parents and that of their children (Anderssen et al., 2006; Campbell et al., 2001; Jago et al., 2010, 2014; McGuire et al., 2002; Sallis et al., 1992; Trost et al., 2003). Only DiLorenzo et al. (1998) determined an inverse relationship between parental MVPA and the children’s MVPA.
Gender differences are consistently linked to the MVPA of children and the association between parental variables and the MVPA of the children. Girls are generally less active than boys (Belcher et al., 2010; Colley et al., 2011; Crespo et al., 2013; Jago et al., 2005, 2014; Tudor-Locke et al., 2003; Wang et al., 2013) and some studies have indicated that boys generally receive more parental support than girls (e.g. Hoefer et al., 2001; Hovell et al., 1996; Raudsepp and Viira, 2000; Sallis et al., 1992; Yang et al., 1996). However, Crespo et al. (2013) found that boys reported lower explicit modelling from parents compared with girls. Other studies failed to determine gender differences for the parental support of the MVPA of children (Davison, 2004; Trost et al., 2003). Moreover, parental support can explain more variance in the MVPA behaviours of boys than those of girls (Crespo et al., 2013; Hovell et al., 1996; McGuire et al., 2002; Sallis et al., 1999; Welk et al., 2003). A small number of studies examined the association between parental MVPA and the MVPA participation of their children by gender. Moore et al. (1991) reported that the effect of parental MVPA was higher for boys than for girls. Wold and Anderssen (1992) stated that parental MVPA primarily influenced same-sex children, such as fathers to sons and mothers to daughters. Slightly different from the findings of Wold and Anderssen (1992), Yang et al. (1996) reported that the MVPA of mothers influenced girls, whereas the MVPA of fathers influenced both boys and girls.
Numerous studies have reported the significant relationship between parental factors and the MVPA of children in Europe and North America. However, the extent to which these findings can be generalized to children in China remains unknown. The Chinese culture of family patterns, parental roles, and parenting styles differs from those of western countries. For example, the one child policy in China, which was initiated in 1979, advocated one child per couple to control population growth. Thus, family size and composition have significantly changed, with the number of children in Chinese families decreasing over time. This policy placed children at the centre of unprecedented attention within a family relationship, enabling parents to provide a greater degree of care to and interaction with their children, and express high expectations from them in terms of academic achievements (Chow and Zhao, 1996; Feng, 2003). Moreover, the parenting style and parental roles in Chinese families are based on Confucian philosophy, which addresses the authority and power of parents by dominating their children in a hierarchical social relationship. Moreover, men are expected to be stern and extroverted, whereas women should be submissive and introverted (Ho, 1987; Lau et al., 2007; Wang et al., 2013). The parenting style of most Chinese parents is heavily influenced by Confucian philosophy; thus, they tend to be more authoritarian or controlling compared with their western counterparts (Hong et al., 2012). In China, most of the fathers serve as strict educators and discipline enforcers, whereas most of the mothers are responsible for taking care of a child’s need for affection (Hong et al., 2012; Lau et al., 2007). Therefore, investigating the association between parental factors and children’s MVPA in China is particularly important.
The current study has three specific objectives. The first objective is to describe the MVPA of children, parental MVPA, parental support, and the correlations between them. The second objective is to examine gender differences in MVPA, parental support, and parental MVPA. It is hypothesized that boys will participate in more MVPA outside school than girls and parents will provide more support for the MVPA participation of boys than girls. The third objective is to investigate whether parental MVPA and the different types of parental support as proposed by Davison and other researchers are significantly related to the objectively measured MVPA of boys and girls (e.g. Davison, 2004; Ferrao and Janssen, 2015; Hoefer et al., 2001). It is hypothesized that children whose parents are more physically active and provide more MVPA support have longer MVPA time. This study focuses on children aged seven to 11 years old. This group of children is considered the ideal sample because the cognitive decision-making abilities of 11-year-old children increase around this period and they begin to assert a degree of independence from their parents (Jago et al., 2009; Smith et al., 2003).
Method
Participants
Seven primary schools were selected randomly from four districts of Shanghai, a city located in eastern China. The principals of the seven schools were contacted, and three schools from three different districts agreed to participate in the current study. The university ethics committee and relevant school educational authorities approved the study. Primary schools in Shanghai have five grades (i.e. grade 1 to 5 with students aged seven to 12 years old) and the three schools have five or six classes for each grade. Two classes were randomly selected at each grade from grade 1 to 4 by the head of the PE teaching group of each school. The students in these classes and their respective parents were invited to join the study. In all, 482 out of 611 students and their parents agreed to participate.
A total of 159 out of 482 children were excluded based on the following exclusion criteria: (a) a total of 16 children were excluded because of accelerometer malfunction or loss; (b) 13 children older than 11 years old were excluded; (c) 105 children were excluded because their valid accelerometer data did not cover at least two valid weekdays and one valid weekend day; and (d) 25 children and their parents were excluded because the sample only included children whose parents, whether living together or apart, completed the questionnaires for parents which examined the possible association between parental factors and the MVPA of their children. The final analytic sample consisted of 323 participants (172 boys and 151 girls) and their parents.
Measures
Children’s MVPA
An Actigraph GT3X activity monitor was used for measurement in this study (Robusto and Trost, 2012). Children were instructed to wear the monitor for seven consecutive days during their waking hours. The monitors were only removed for bathing, taking a shower, or swimming (Rowlands, 2007). The sampling interval (epoch) in the present study was set at 10 seconds. Accelerometer data were considered valid if more than 600 minutes (10 hours) of monitoring per day (excluding strings of zeros for 20 minutes or longer) were recorded over the entire monitoring period (Anderson et al., 2005). The accelerometer data were included in the final analysis if they contained at least two valid weekdays and one valid weekend day (Wang et al., 2013). Cutoff points (Zhu et al., 2013) specifically for Chinese children and adolescents were used to determine the activity level thresholds. Finally, the MVPA performed outside of school time was reported (i.e. all MVPA data from 8:00am to 4:00pm were excluded).
Background information
Parents provided their basic background information, including their age, the age and grade of their child, combined family income, and the highest educational level of each parent.
Parental support
A questionnaire developed by Davison et al. (2003) was used to assess parental support of the MVPA of children. Two conceptually distinct factors, logistic support and explicit modelling, were identified based on exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (Davison et al., 2003); the acceptable internal consistency and validity of the items were also provided. All questionnaire items were presented using a five-point Likert scale and then summed across two factors: logistic support ranging from 3 to 15 and explicit modelling ranging from 4 to 20. Logistic support was assessed by three items (e.g. ‘How active are you in enrolling your children in sports?’) with responses ranging from ‘never enrolled’ (1) to ‘frequently enrolled’ (5). Explicit modelling was assessed by four items (e.g. ‘How much do you enjoy sport/physical activity?’) with responses ranging from ‘do not enjoy’ (1) to ‘thoroughly enjoy’ (5).
Parental MVPA
The seven-day MVPA recall developed by Sallis and colleagues (1985) was used to measure parental MVPA. The seven-day recall was employed in previous studies (Hamilton et al., 2012; Kotarska et al., 2015; Pinto et al., 2013; Raudsepp, 2006; Raudsepp and Viira, 2000). Parents were asked to recall the hours they spent sleeping and performing moderate, hard, and very hard activities for the past seven days. Examples of moderate, hard, and very hard activities were used to help participants with activity classification. By replicating the study by Raudsepp and Viira (2000), the weekly total MVPA included moderate, hard, and very hard activities in the current study. Therefore, the estimated total kilocalories of energy expenditure per week was calculated by multiplying time spent in moderate, hard, and very hard activities for the past seven days by their respective metabolic equivalent of energy (MET) values (i.e. 4, 6, and 10) and then summed to obtain the overall METs score. MVPA recall was validated against mechanical activity monitoring in adults (Hamilton et al., 2012).
Translation procedures and trustworthiness
The instrument was translated and validated prior to data collection. Based on the adaption guidelines of self-report measures (Beaton et al., 2000), the translation and back-translation of the instrument utilized in the present study were undertaken by two bilingual translators. The back-translated version was compared with the original English version and the differences were negotiated until the translators agreed. The questionnaire was sent to five experts holding doctoral degrees in child and adolescent MVPA. All experts determined that the Chinese version of the questionnaire was valid. Test–retest reliability was checked with the parents of 30 children, ensuring a two-week interval between test and retest. The Chinese version demonstrated an acceptable test–retest reliability coefficient at 0.77 for the MVPA of the father, 0.61 for the MVPA of the mother, 0.72 for the logistic support of the father, 0.68 for the explicit modelling of the father, 0.70 for the logistic support of the mother, and 0.75 for the explicit modelling of the mother. The majority of reliability coefficients exceeded the 0.70 criterion for acceptability (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994).
Data collection procedure
Data collection was conducted from September to December 2014. The researchers introduced the aims and methods of the study to the participating children before the data collection. The researchers obtained informed consent from all the participating children and their parents. All participating children were provided with accelerometers. They were then instructed to wear the accelerometers for seven consecutive days. The participants were asked to follow their normal daily routines during the monitoring period. The children were required to return the accelerometers after eight days to ensure seven days of complete data collection. On the last day of the MVPA test, the parental survey questionnaire was placed in the child’s ‘take-home’ folder, which was brought home to the parents.
Data analysis
Descriptive statistics were used to determine the means and standard deviations (SD) of the MVPA duration of the children, the MVPA energy expenditure of parents, and parental support. Pearson product-moment correlations were computed to examine the correlations among all study variables of boys and girls. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed to test the differences in the MVPA duration of children, the MVPA energy expenditure of parents, and parental support by gender. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed with full samples of this study to test the association between parental MVPA, parental support, and the MVPA of children, along with the possible gender interaction. Two hierarchical regression models were performed to specify the variable that contributed to the MVPA by gender if gender interactions were observed. Each regression tested three models. Parental age was controlled in Model 1, whereas parental support and parental MVPA were added in Model 2. Finally, the interactions between some variables (e.g. interaction between gender and fathers’ logistic support) were also added.
Results
Participant characteristics
The demographic characteristics of full samples, including boys and girls, are presented in Table 1. The ages of 323 participating students ranged from seven to 11 years old (M = 9.83, SD = 0.83). The breakdown by gender was 151 (47%) girls and 172 (53%) boys. Participants comprised of 74 (23%) grade 1, 73 (23%) grade 2, 90 (28%) grade 3, and 86 (26%) grade 4 students from three schools in Shanghai. Their parents were, on average, in their mid-30s (mothers: M = 36.25, SD = 5.19; fathers: M = 38.44, SD = 9.36). The participant sample was primarily composed of middle to upper class families. The percentages of families with a combined yearly family income of (a) < CNY 20,000, (b) ≥CNY 20,000 and <CNY50,000, (c) ≥CNY 50,000 and <CNY 80,000, (d) ≥CNY 80,000 and <CNY 100,000, and (e) ≥CNY 100,000, were 10%, 9%, 22%, 21%, and 38%, respectively. High school and bachelor’s degrees were reported as the highest levels of education for 25% and 59% of the fathers, and 22% and 53% of the mothers, respectively. A total of 274 children (85%) lived with both parents. Fewer children (N = 42, 13%) were from a remarried family. Only seven (2%) children lived with a single father or mother.
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Table 1. Demographic characteristics of participants.
Descriptive findings
Based on the Chinese-specific cutoff points, the participating children spent an average of 23.15 (SD = 13.21) minutes/day in MVPA. Only 4% of the children met the recommendation of 60 minutes of MVPA per day. The results also indicated that children spent an average of 14.32 (SD = 9.38) minutes per day in MVPA during non-school time. In terms of parental support, the midpoints of the five-point scales of logistic support and explicit modelling were 9 and 12, respectively. Except for the explicit modelling of mothers (M = 10.63, SD = 3.69) which is slightly lower than the midpoint, the mean scores of the logistic support of fathers (M = 10.63, SD = 2.81) and mothers (M = 10.79, SD = 2.29) and the explicit modelling of fathers (M = 12.39, SD = 3.79) were higher than the midpoint.
Table 2 presents the bivariate Pearson product-moment correlations among the MVPA duration of children during non-school time, parental support, and parental MVPA energy expenditure by gender. All study variables were positively correlated except for the following non-significant relationships. No significant relationship was found between boys’ MVPA duration, logistic support of fathers and mothers, and the MVPA of mothers. Similarly, no significant relationship was found between the explicit modelling of fathers and the MVPA of mothers. No significant relationship was observed between the logistic support of fathers and the explicit modelling of mothers and between the logistic support of mothers and the MVPA of fathers.
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Table 2. Intercorrelations and descriptive data for MVPA of children during non-school time, parental support, and parental MVPA by gender (N = 323).
All study variables with girls were positively correlated, except for the following non-significant relationships: girls’ MVPA duration was not correlated with logistic support, the explicit modelling of fathers, and the MVPA of fathers and mothers. The MVPA of fathers was also not related to logistic support and the explicit modelling of mothers. Moreover, no significant relationship was observed between the MVPA of mothers and the logistic support of fathers and mothers, as well as the explicit modelling of fathers. The logistic support of fathers was not related to the explicit modelling of mothers.
Gender differences in the MVPA of children, parental support, and parental MVPA
A MANOVA was conducted to examine the gender differences (Table 3). The results revealed a significant multivariate effect of gender F (1, 323) = 3.15, p = 0.003, η2 = 0.13. The results of the follow-up univariate test revealed that the MVPA time of children (F (1, 323) = 10.419, p = 0.001, η2 = 0.07) contributed to the significant gender difference. The MVPA duration of boys was significantly longer than that of girls.
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Table 3. Gender differences in MVPA of children, parental support, and parental MVPA.
Association between parental MVPA, parental support, and the MVPA of children
Table 4 presents the results of the hierarchical regression analysis with full samples. Model 1 was not significant (F (1, 323) = 4.225, p = 0.876). Parental support and parental MVPA were entered in Model 2 and significantly accounted for 8.9% of the variance in MVPA of children (F (2, 323) = 4.655, p < 0.001). Interactions between gender and parental MVPA and support were entered into the equation in Model 3, and the additional 4.3% of the variance of MVPA was explained (F (3, 323) = 3.977, p < 0.001). The interactions among gender and the MVPA of fathers, explicit modelling of fathers, logistic support of mothers, and explicit modelling were significant.
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Table 4. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis for predicting the MVPA duration of full samples during non-school time.
Boys and girls were analysed separately because the interactions between gender and most of the explanatory variables were observed in this study. Tables 5 and 6 present the results of the hierarchical regression analysis. Model 1 was not significant for boys’ MVPA outside of school (F (1, 172) = 1.116, p = 0.330). However, when parental support and parental MVPA were added, the model became significant (F (2, 172) = 6.152, p < 0.001) and explained 22.3% of variance in boys’ MVPA outside of school. The inspection of the standardized betas revealed that the explicit modelling of fathers (B = 0.823) and their MVPA (B = 0.148) were two factors that significantly related to boys’ MVPA outside of school. The interaction between two different types of parental support for each parent in Model 3 was added because some researchers found that the interaction between father- and mother-support significantly influenced the behaviour of their children (McElwain et al., 2007). The results also showed that the model remained significant (F (3, 172) = 4.655, p < 0.001) and increased the explained variance in the MVPA duration of boys to 23.3%. However, all interactions were not significant. Model 1 was not significant (F (1, 151) = 1.659, p = 0.195) in the hierarchical analysis with girls’ MVPA duration as the dependent variable. When parental support and parental MVPA were added, Model 2 became significant (F (2, 115) = 3.202, p = 0.003) and 13.3% variance in the girls’ MVPA outside of school was explained. Only the explicit modelling of mothers was significantly related to the MVPA duration of girls (B = 2.290). When the interaction terms were added, the model remained significant (F (3, 151) = 2.119, p = 0.022) and decreased 2.8% of the variance explained in the MVPA duration of the girls. However, all interactions were not significant in association with the MVPA duration of girls.
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Table 5. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis for predicting the MVPA duration of boys during non-school time.
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Table 6. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis for predicting the MVPA duration of girls during non-school time.
Discussion
Descriptive findings on the MVPA of children, parental support, and MVPA of parents
Public health recommendations for MVPA established the growing awareness of the health benefits of regular MVPA. The World Health Organization (2010) recommends at least 60 minutes of MVPA per day for children and adolescents. However, the results of the present study indicated that only a small percentage of children met the recommended MVPA of 60 minutes per day. The results are consistent with previous physical activity studies among Chinese children and adolescents (Shi et al., 2006; Tudor-Locke et al., 2003; Wang et al., 2013). Several studies have reported that Chinese children are inactive because they do not perform household chores and they are under extreme pressure to succeed academically (Tudor-Locke et al., 2003; Wang et al., 2013). In this study, the mean score of two types of parental support was higher than the midpoint, which indicated that the parental support of children’s MVPA was generally positive.
Gender differences in the MVPA of children, parental support, and parental MVPA
Gender is the most studied variable in MVPA level differences in the literature. Overwhelming evidence has indicated that girls are less active than boys across all ages. European girls spend significantly less time performing MVPA compared with European boys (Verloigne et al., 2012). In the US, girls aged six to 19 years old spend less time performing MVPA than boys (Belcher et al., 2010). The consistent conclusion is that Chinese boys are more active than girls (Tudor-Locke et al., 2003; Wang et al., 2013). The current study confirms the gender difference in MVPA during non-school time. However, the present results revealed no significant gender differences in parental support, suggesting that boys and girls received a similar amount of MVPA support from their parents. Previous studies have resulted in mixed findings in this matter. Several studies that adopted a single item to measure parental encouragement of the MVPA of children have reported that boys who are more likely to be transported to sporting events or receive more encouragement are also more active than girls (Hoefer et al., 2001; Hovell et al., 1996; Moore et al., 1991; Raudsepp and Viira, 2000; Sallis et al., 1992; Yang et al., 1996). However, several studies which used a questionnaire that assesses a broad range of parental support factors that promote MVPA revealed no gender difference in the exposure to parental support (Davison, 2004; Trost et al., 2003). Thus, many previous studies do not suggest that boys receive higher levels of support across the board, although gender differences exist with exposure to any one type of support. The present study supports this finding by showing that both parents provide similar levels of support for their children in their MVPA participation. Knowledge on the health benefits of MVPA among parents is increasing (Gao and Wang, 2015), which may enable them to support the physical activities of their children.
The association between parental support, parental MVPA, and the MVPA of boys and girls
Parental support and the MVPA of parents significantly explained 13.2% of the variance in the MVPA of children in China. The explained variance in the percentage of MVPA duration of children is similar to those reported in other studies focusing on children, which ranged from 10% to 20% (Davison et al., 2003; Trost et al., 2003; Welk et al., 2003). Davison et al. (2003) reported that parental support explains 12% of the variance in the MVPA of nine-year-old non-Hispanic white girls. Welk et al. (2003) reported that parental influence accounts for 20% of the variance in the MVPA of children from Grades 3 to 6. Trost et al. (2003) revealed that age, gender, parental support, and child self-efficacy account for 17% of the variance in the MVPA of 14-year-old children. However, a large proportion of the variance in children’s MVPA remained unexplained, which suggests that the influence of parental support and MVPA is limited. The high unexplained variance percentage in the MVPA of children also demonstrated that MVPA in children may be shaped by numerous other factors, such as peers, PE teachers, government policy, school environment, and community level factors. Therefore, further studies must include more factors to explain the MVPA of Chinese children.
The findings indicated that the explicit modelling and MVPA of fathers were significantly related to the MVPA duration of boys, whereas the explicit modelling of mothers was significantly associated with the MVPA of girls. These findings further support the notion that parental support and MVPA are crucial in shaping MVPA in elementary and middle school-aged children (Craig et al., 2013; Davison, 2004; Davison and Jago, 2009; Davison et al., 2003; Jago et al., 2010, 2014; Raudsepp, 2006). Fathers and mothers who serve as good role models effectively promote boys’ and girls’ MVPA participation respectively. However, the concrete means of supporting children’s MVPA participation by parents are not significantly associated with the MVPA duration of children. Such a finding may be related to the young age of the children in the present study. Davison and Jago (2009) found that parental modelling is particularly important during preadolescence but is less influential with increasing age, whereas logistic support plays a lesser role at younger ages and a greater role as the child approaches adolescence. Thus, parents may support the MVPA of their children by acting as good role models. Parental support includes participating in sports, performing MVPA with their children, and using their own MVPA behaviours to encourage their children to be physically active. Moreover, the MVPA of mothers was not related to children’s MVPA duration in the current study. Mothers in China feel obligated to prioritize their time for family caretaking responsibilities, which may reduce their MVPA level and result in less influence on their children’s MVPA (Dearth-Wesley et al., 2012). Furthermore, the measures of parental MVPA were self-reports, which may suppress true associations.
All interactions between the two types of parental support, namely logistic support and explicit modelling, were not significant, suggesting that fathers’ and mothers’ support with their children’s MVPA duration may be independent of each other. This finding is expected in the Chinese cultural context. Fathers and mothers in traditional Chinese families play different roles. Most of the Chinese fathers serve as good role models and teach desirable behaviours to their children, such as encouraging their MVPA participation, whereas most of the Chinese mothers are ‘warm’, ‘caring’, and ‘gentle’, and take care of their children’s emotional needs (Lau et al., 2007). The different roles played by fathers and mothers in their families may suppress the moderation of the interaction between the two types of parental support on the MVPA participation of their children.
Two father variables, explicit modelling and MVPA energy expenditure, emerged as the two most significant factors associated with MVPA duration among boys during non-school time. This result indicates that active fathers serve as role models in promoting the MVPA participation of boys. On the one hand, when fathers value MVPA and are more active, their sons are also likely to participate in MVPA. On the other hand, the explicit modelling of mothers is the factor that significantly contributed to the MVPA duration of their daughters in the present study. This result indicates that mothers may enhance the likelihood of their daughters becoming physically active by being good role models for them. This finding further supports the gender-differentiated responses of parents toward children. A few studies over the last two decades have reported that fathers play a bigger role in the development of their sons than their daughters, whereas mothers tend to spend more time with their daughters and have a closer relationship with a daughter than with a son (Lundberg, 2005; Raley and Bianchi, 2006; Thomas, 1994). Gender difference in the association between parental variables and the MVPA of children suggested that parents should provide different methods to enhance the MVPA of boys and girls. A more effective approach would be to allow fathers to be a more positive role model for boys and mothers to be a more positive role model for girls to enable them to participate in MVPA.
Parental variables explained more variance in the MVPA duration of boys compared with that of girls in this study. This finding partially explains why boys are more active than girls in the present study. Moreover, this finding is consistent with previous studies, which report that parental support tends to explain more of the variance in the MVPA behaviours of boys than girls (Crespo et al., 2013; Hovell et al., 1996; McGuire et al., 2002; Sallis et al., 1999; Welk et al., 2003), and that the effect of parent activity is higher for boys than girls (Moore et al., 1991). This phenomenon could be explained by the Chinese ideology that women by nature are inferior and subordinate to men, and their value in society is judged by the success of their husbands and children (Lau et al., 2007; Leung, 2003). Moreover, activeness, bravery, aggressiveness, and perseverance are valued more in boys in traditional Chinese society. In comparison, gentle manner, kindness, approachability, sensitivity, quietness, weakness, and malleability are valued in girls (Lau et al., 2007). Thus, there was less response among girls than boys in the present study, although the MVPA of their parents was similar and both have received similar MVPA support from their parents.
Conclusions and further research
This study supports the assumption that parental support and MVPA are significantly associated with the MVPA of children in China. Explicit modelling and the MVPA of fathers were significantly associated with the MVPA of boys, whereas the explicit modelling of mothers was significantly related to the MVPA of girls. Therefore, parents should be encouraged to support the MVPA of their children by acting as good role models. They must enhance the MVPA of their children by using different methods based on gender.
This study is characterized by several important strengths. The most important of these strengths is the use of objective measures of children’s MVPA, which rule out the potential for subjective bias in recall. Moreover, the use of a multidimensional measure of parental support allowed us to distinguish parental modelling from more tangible forms of support, such as enrolling children in organized activities. However, this study had certain limitations that must be noted. First, the generalization of the results is limited because the participating children in this study are grade 1 to 4 students from three primary schools in Shanghai. This limitation may result in the lack of statistical power for the multivariate regression models. The results may not be generalized to children of other ages and those from other areas in China. Future studies must expand the research scope by employing a larger and more diverse sample (e.g. samples covering more schools, grade levels, and other cities in China). The second limitation of this study is the use of a self-reported questionnaire that measures the MVPA of parents. This measure may be subject to response bias and estimation error. Using a more objective MVPA measure (e.g. accelerometer) may increase the predictive power of parental MVPA because of the lower levels of measurement error. The third limitation of this study is the cross-sectional nature of the data. Cross-sectional studies cannot determine the causality of the relationship between parents and their children’s MVPA. Therefore, longitudinal research is needed to establish any sort of causal relationships between them.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project was funded by the National Social Science Foundation of China (No. 13CTY028).
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Author biographies
Wang Lijuan is an Associate Professor in School of Recreational Sports and Arts, Shanghai University of Sport.
Sun Jiancui is an Associate Professor in College of Sport Medicine and Rehabilitation, Taishan Medical University.
Zhao Suzhe is an Associate Professor in Physical Education Department, Shenzhen Polytechnic.
