Evaluating a model of parental influence on youth physical activity
Abstract
Objective To test a conceptual model linking parental physical activity orientations, parental support for physical activity, and children's self-efficacy perceptions with physical activity participation. Participants and setting The sample consisted of 380 students in grades 7 through 12 (mean age, 14.0+/-1.6 years) and their parents. Data collection took place during the fall of 1996. Main outcome measures Parents completed a questionnaire assessing their physical activity habits, enjoyment of physical activity, beliefs regarding the importance of physical activity, and supportive behaviors for their child's physical activity. Students completed a 46-item inventory assessing physical activity during the previous 7 days and a 5-item physical activity self-efficacy scale. The model was tested via observed variable path analysis using structural equation modeling techniques (AMOS 4.0). Results An initial model, in which parent physical activity orientations predicted child physical activity via parental support and child self-efficacy, did not provide an acceptable fit to the data. Inclusion of a direct path from parental support to child physical activity and deletion of a nonsignificant path from parental physical activity to child physical activity significantly improved model fit. Standardized path coefficients for the revised model ranged from 0.17 to 0.24, and all were significant at the p<0.0001 level. Conclusions Parental support was an important correlate of youth physical activity, acting directly or indirectly through its influence on self-efficacy. Physical activity interventions targeted at youth should include and evaluate the efficacy of individual-level and community-level strategies to increase parents' capacity to provide instrumental and motivational support for their children's physical activity.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
School-based physical education is the most widely available opportunity for promoting physical activity among children and adolescents.
“While school-based PE is the most widely available opportunity for promoting PA among children and adolescents (McKenzie, 2010;McKenzie et al., 2000;Trost et al., 2003), there are additional opportunities to participate in PA beyond structured programs such as school and sport-type activities.”
From Developing an Intentionally Designed Physical Activity Model of Programming for Children’s Structured Recreation in Canada (2022) · cites this paper as Trost et al., 2003
Cites
A review of correlates of physical activity of children and adolescents
SALLIS, J. F., PROCHASKA, J. J., & TAYLOR, W. C. (2000) · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise · doi:10.1097/00005768-200005000-00014 · Cited by 4,421 · see citing works
Self-citationYang, X. L., Telama, R., & Laakso, L. (1996) · International Review for the Sociology of Sport · doi:10.1177/101269029603100304 · Cited by 143 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Environmental correlates of physical activity in youth – a review and update
Ferreira, I., Van Der Horst, K., Wendel‐Vos, W., Kremers, S., Van Lenthe, F. J., & Brug, J. (2007) · Obesity Reviews · doi:10.1111/j.1467-789x.2006.00264.x · Cited by 993 · see citing works
Parental Correlates of Physical Activity in Children and Early Adolescents
Gustafson, S. L., & Rhodes, R. E. (2006) · Sports Medicine · doi:10.2165/00007256-200636010-00006 · Cited by 762 · see citing works
Parental Social Support and the Physical Activity-Related Behaviors of Youth: A Review
Beets, M. W., Cardinal, B. J., & Alderman, B. L. (2010) · Health Education & Behavior · doi:10.1177/1090198110363884 · Cited by 665 · see citing works
Parental correlates in child and adolescent physical activity: a meta-analysis
Yao, C. A., & Rhodes, R. E. (2015) · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · doi:10.1186/s12966-015-0163-y · Cited by 540 · see citing works
“(2003) [64] USA N = 380 CS Parent report Child self-report Adolescents’ PA & parental support: β = .”
BackgroundInfluentialEdwardson, C. L., & Gorely, T. (2010) · Psychology of Sport and Exercise · doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2010.05.001 · Cited by 432 · see citing works
Physical activity and social support in adolescents: a systematic review
Mendonca, G., Cheng, L. A., Melo, E. N., & de Farias Junior, J. C. (2014) · Health Education Research · doi:10.1093/her/cyu017 · Cited by 322 · see citing works
Laird, Y., Fawkner, S., Kelly, P., McNamee, L., & Niven, A. (2016) · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · doi:10.1186/s12966-016-0405-7 · Cited by 210 · see citing works
Patterns and Determinants of Physical Activity in U.S. Adolescents
Kahn, J. A., Huang, B., Gillman, M. W., Field, A. E., Austin, S. B., Colditz, G. A., & Frazier, A. L. (2008) · Journal of Adolescent Health · doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2007.11.143 · Cited by 209 · see citing works
The financial costs, behaviour and psychology of obesity: A one health analysis
Bomberg, E., Birch, L., Endenburg, N., German, A. J., Neilson, J., Seligman, H., Takashima, G., & Day, M. J. (2017) · Journal of Comparative Pathology · doi:10.1016/j.jcpa.2017.03.007 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Influencing the Parents of Children Aged 9–13 Years
Price, S. M., Huhman, M., & Potter, L. D. (2008) · American Journal of Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2008.03.004 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Reflective Informatics Through Family Storytelling: Self-discovering Physical Activity Predictors
Saksono, H., & Parker, A. G. (2017) · Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3025453.3025651 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Wang, X., Liu, Q.-M., Ren, Y.-J., Lv, J., & Li, L.-M. (2015) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-015-1593-9 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Cai, W., Gao, Y., Yang, W., Cheng, F., Tang, D., & Li, L. (2018) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph15061244 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Van Wyk, N., Taylor McCallum, N., & Katz, L. (2022) · Journal of Park and Recreation Administration · doi:10.18666/jpra-2021-10910 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
- Authors
- Trost, S. G., Sallis, J. F., Pate, R. R., Freedson, P. S., Taylor, W. C., & Dowda, M.
- Affiliations
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- San Diego State University (US)
- University of South Carolina (US)
- University of Massachusetts Amherst (US)
- The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (US)
- Corresponding author
- Trost, Stewart G
- Venue
- American Journal of Preventive Medicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2003-11
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 277-282
- ISSN
- 0749-3797 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2012922866
- Cited by
- 802
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 47 · 2017: 50 · 2016: 43 · 2015: 59 · 2014: 51 · 2013: 55 · 2012: 34
- FWCI
- 7.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Journal of Preventive Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Scholar Commons (University of South Carolina) (submittedVersion)
- ScholarWorks@UMassAmherst (University of Massachusetts Amherst) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
- Social Sciences › Life-span and Life-course Studies › Sports and Physical Education Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Keywords
- parental influence, children's physical activity, parental support, exercise self-efficacy, adolescents, physical activity interventions
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Educational Status, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Psychological, Parent-Child Relations, Surveys and Questionnaires, Exercise, Sex Distribution
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
