NCJ Number
215481
Journal
Journal of Adolescence Volume: 29 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2006 Pages: 513-524
Date Published
August 2006
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This longitudinal study examined the role parents are believed to play in influencing their children’s health behaviors or health habits, specifically physical activity.
Abstract
Overall, the results indicate that levels of physical activity among young adults are not directly affected by parental levels of physical activity. They also indicate only a weak to moderate degree of stability of physical activity which indicates support for the lifelong openness model: the adolescents tended to change their physical activity relative to each other. Research has shown that parents generally constitute one of the strongest socializing agents for children and young persons/adolescents. In the literature of socialization into physical activity, parents are seen as providing opportunities to become physically active. Parents are role models and socializing agents providing both external and explicit reinforcement. Due to the many studies in the field, there is a strong need for longitudinal studies where physical activity habits from both parents and offspring are reported. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine interrelationships in parental and offspring physical activity utilizing a longitudinal research design where parents and children all provided information about their own physical activity. The analysis assessed the parental stability in physical activity across 6 and 8 years and the parental physical activity changes as predictor for offspring physical activity changes. In this study, physical activity is defined as voluntary habitual movements of skeletal muscles performed during leisure time producing lack of breath or sweat. The study sample consisted of 557 adolescents over an 8-year period and from 13 to 21 years of age. References