10.4: Parental Influences

Parents have been identified as playing a vital role in their children’s physical activity. Previously, we explored the role of parental social support (Beets et al., 2010) and social control (Wilson & Spink, 2011; Wilson et al., 2014). A parent may provide opportunities for their child to participate in physical activity by, for example, providing a bicycle or ball for them to play with. A parent may encourage and support their child as they are participating in physical activity. A parent may also serve as a model for the child’s behavior by being active themselves. Several reviews have highlighted the positive relationship between parental encouragement and physical activity in children (Beets et al., 2010; Gustafson & Rhodes, 2006). Across these different reviews, the potential of parents to influence their child’s physical activity has been consistent. Given the diversity of ways that parents may influence their children’s physical activity, there has been an effort to conceptualize the influences. Mâsse and colleagues (2017; 2020) grouped parental influences into three broad types: (a) autonomy promotion, (b) structure, and (c) neglect and control.

Autonomy promotion reflects efforts by parents to support their child’s independence as well as promote physical activity through encouragement (Mâsse et al., 2017; Mâsse et al., 2020). This classification also has been called autonomy support (Mâsse et al., 2017). Many aspects of these parental influences focus on guiding the child to choose to engage in physical activity. Encouragement has been reported as a strategy that has consistently been related physical activity behavior (Gustafson & Rhodes, 2006; Beets et al., 2010). Often this encouragement from parents has a stronger effect among younger children than adolescents as it is thought adolescents may be more influenced by peers than parents (Gustafson & Rhodes, 2006). The other aspect of autonomy promotion appears to be praise and rewards provided by parents (Mâsse et al., 2020). This type of parental influence often has been combined with parental support measures and not examined on its own (Beets et al., 2010). Across several studies, the encouragement and reinforcement provided by parents appears to be a key type of parental influence for encouraging children to engage in physical activity (Beets et al., 2010).

Structure refers to parents creating an environment that promotes physical activity (e.g., co-participation, facilitating physical activity, modeling; Mâsse et al., 2017). When parents engage in physical activity, their children are also more likely to participate in physical activity (Beets et al., 2010).In school-aged children, both mothers’ and fathers’ physical activity was related to their child’s physical activity on both the weekend and weekdays (Fuemmeler et al., 2011). In their review of parental influences, Gustafson and Rhodes (2006) identified modeling as a potential type of parental influence;however, this form of influence was not always related to children’s behavior. In preschool-aged children, parents’ activity was related to their child’s activity when they reported being together as opposed to times when they were apart (Keyes & Wilson, 2020). This suggests that parents being active on their own (e.g., going to the gym without their child) may not have the same influence as parents being active with their child (e.g., going for a walk together). Another example of this type of parental influence may come from parental provision of collaborative social control that involves co-participation and helping children learn the skills to be active (Wilson & Spink, 2011). This type of social control is the type that appears to be most promising in prompting children to participate in physical activity (Wilson & Spink, 2011). The beneficial effects of parents and children co-participating in physical activity has been seen across several studies (Beets et al., 2010). Children were more likely to meet the recommended physical activity standards when their parents were directly involved in the physical activity, co-participated,or watched their child participate in physical activity (Beets et al., 2010). This active participation by parents appears to be a key form of parental influence.

Photo by Lgh_9 from Pexels

Neglect and control reflect pressures by parents to prompt their child to be active without focusing on the child’s interest (e.g., nagging the child; Mâsse et al., 2017). This strategy includes pressuring influences such as nagging, punishing, or using threats to prompt physical activity. Negative social control reflects parents nagging and pressuring them to be active and it does not appear to have a strong influence on physical activity behaviors unless it is perceived as supportive by adolescents (Wilson & Spink, 2010). Another aspect of this type of parenting strategy is that the parent does not encourage physical activity at all and leaves it up to the child to decide if they want to engage in physical activity or not (e.g., permissive strategies; Mâsse et al., 2017). While not directly looking at parenting strategies, parenting styles such as uninvolved and permissive styles may provide some idea of how this absence of strategies may relate to physical activity (e.g., Henessey et al., 2010). One study reported that children (aged 6–11 years) were the least active when they had uninvolved parents (low demandingness and low responsiveness) when compared to other parenting styles (Hennessy et al., 2010). The strategies identified by Mâsse et al (2017) may have less of an impact on physical activity behavior than the other strategies.

While much of what we know about the different types of parental influences can be classified into these three broad types, it is still a relatively new taxonomy. There is a lot of support for the benefits of the autonomy supportive strategies and the structure that parents may provide (Beets et al., 2010; Gustafson & Rhodes, 2006). For more on discussion on autonomy in the context of self-determination theory, see Chapter 3 (Quested et al., 2021) and Chapter 32 (Kingston et al., 2021). In an effort to move our knowledge of parental influences forward, Mâsse et al. (2020) have also put forward a tool for measuring parental influences based on this classification system.

Learning Exercise Four

A parent is wondering how to help their child become more physically active. Based on the different types of parental influences, what recommendations would you give?