Adolescent’s perceptions of parental influences on physical activity

BACKGROUND: Youth physical activity engagement is a key component of contemporary health promotion strategies. Parents have potential to influence the physical activity behaviours of their children. The purpose of this study was to explore associations between adolescent self-reported physical activity, parent physical activity and perceptions of parental influence as measured by the Children's Physical Activity Correlates (CPAC) questionnaire. METHODS: This investigation included a total of 146 adolescents and their parents. Self-reported measures of physical activity were obtained using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents and International Physical Activity Questionnaire for adolescents and their parents respectively. Adolescent perceptions of parental role modelling, support, and encouragement were measured with the parental influences scales of the CPAC. RESULTS: Ordinary least squares regression indicated that perceptions of parental role modelling (β=197.41, 95% CI 34.33-360.49, p=0.031) was positively associated with adolescent self-reported moderate-to-vigorous physical activity with the overall model accounting for a small amount of the variance (R2=0.076). CONCLUSION: These results are in agreement with previous research indicating that parents play a small, albeit vital role in the physical activity engagement of their children. Public health campaigns with the aim of promoting youth physical activity should endeavour to incorporate parents into their interventions.