Parental influence on children's physical activity in urban green spaces

This study explores parents' influence on children's physical activity (PA) in urban green spaces (UGS). In this study, "children" includes both younger children and adolescents, ages 1-18. Data (n=422) were collected through face-to-face personal interviews with parents between April 1 and May 31, 2015 in city of Aydin, Turkey. We analyzed associations between parents' physical co-activity, frequency and duration of parents' PA with children and frequency and duration of children's PA with bivariate correlations and multivariate regression analyses while controlling for children's age and sex, parent's marital status, education level, occupation, and household income level. Results showed that closer distance to UGS from home was associated with more frequency of children's PA, whereas parents' participation in children's PA was negatively associated with children's PA. On the other hand, frequency of parents' PA with children was positively associated with frequency of children's PA while duration of parents' PA with children was positively associated with duration of children's PA. We also found older children were negatively associated with frequency of children's PA, whereas household income was positively associated with frequency and duration of children's PA while more educated parents were negatively associated with frequency and duration of children's PA. The findings indicate that "physically more active parents bring up physically more active children."