Examining the relationship between family context and children’s physical activity beliefs: The role of parenting style

Objectives: Previous research studies examining parental influences on children’s physical activity (PA) have focused primarily on parents’ own PA behavior, as well as their PA-related beliefs and socially supportive behaviors. The present study, although aligned with this mainstream parental influence research, was grounded in a broader child development perspective to examine the influence of parenting style on children’s PA beliefs and quality of parentechild communication. Method: Self-report questionnaires were administered to 173 children ranging in age from 9 to 12 years to assess their perceptions of parenting style, parentechild communication patterns, as well as their own perceptions of fitness competence, value, and goal orientation. Results: Children’s constellation of beliefs and attitudes regarding PA as well as their perceptions of the parentechild communication process did vary as a function of the type of parenting style they perceived their parents to use. High challenge parenting style was linked to higher perceived fitness competence and value on the part of the children. High support parenting style was linked to more positive perceived parentechild communication patterns. Conclusion: Parenting style may be a critical underlying family process variable that impacts children’s development of a positive constellation of beliefs about PA. Future work is needed to link parenting style and children’s PA beliefs to their PA behavior. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Children who participate in physical activity (PA) on a regular basis appear to reap many social (Strauss, Rodzilsky, Burack, & Colin, 2001), psychological (Boyd & Hrycaiko, 1997), and physiological (Baranowski et al., 1992) benefits. These benefits can be maintained, even enhanced, if children stay active as they move into adolescence and young adulthood (Taylor, Blair, Cummings, Wun, & Malina, 1999; Telama et al., 2005). The challenge from a public health perspective is that PA decreases significantly as children move into the adolescent years (Broderson, Steptoe, Boniface, & Wardle, 2007; Strauss et al., 2001) and continues to decrease as adolescents progress into young adulthood (GordonLarsen, Nelson, & Popkin, 2004). For these reasons, many researchers and scholars have directed their research work toward a better understanding of the social and motivational factors that may underlie children’s PA. Certainly, a complex web of social, psychological, cultural, and environmental factors are important to the development and maintenance of children’s PA levels (Lee, Sallis, & Biddle, 2010). Research grounded in various expectancy-value models has shown that children’s beliefs about themselves as well as their beliefs pertaining to PA are important contributors to children’s PA behaviors (Bois, Sarrazin, Brustad, Trouilloud, & Cury, 2005; Dempsey, Kimiecik, & Horn, 1993; Eccles & Harold, 1991; Gao, 2009; Kimiecik, Horn, & Shurin, 1996). Specifically, these studies have demonstrated that how children feel about themselves, in combinationwith their beliefs about PA, are directly related to, and possibly predictive of, their PA behavior. In particular, three sets of belief variables appear to be most relevant to children’s levels of physical activity: achievement goal orientation, perceived competence, and value. Children’s beliefs variables: links with physical activity Achievement goal orientation refers to children’s notions or definitions of success in a specific context (e.g., classroom, sport, fitness). Two types of goal orientation have been identified as relevant to children’s PA participation (Kimiecik et al., 1996). Task involvement emphasizes the process of performance (e.g., learning, enjoyment, and mastery). Ego-involvement emphasizes the outcome of a behavior and focuses on social or peer comparison, * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (J.C. Kimiecik).