Impact Of A Family Physical Activity Intervention On Physical Activity Co-participation In Parents And Young Children

PURPOSE: This study examined the effect of an 8-week family-based physical activity (PA) intervention on co-participation of PA (Co-PA) in parents and young children. METHODS: Twenty-six parents participated in an 8-week PA intervention with their 1 - 5 year-old child. The adults were randomly placed into an intervention (n = 19) or control (n = 7) group. The intervention group received weekly phone calls with a coach to discuss strategies for the parent and child to engage in Co-PA. Co-PA time was measured using a Bluetooth accelerometer before and after the intervention. Time spent in sedentary behavior, light, moderate, and vigorous PA was determined using age-appropriate cut-points. Data analyses were conducted using the intention-to-treat method. A series of 2 (group: control/intervention) X 2 (time: pre/post) ANOVAs were run to examine the effect of the intervention on Co-PA across different intensities in the parents and children. Effect sizes (ES) were calculated, and significance was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: Overall the dyads spent 139.4 ± 100.1 minutes/day in Co-PA. The Co-PA time was split across morning (42.01 ± 34.9 min/day), afternoon (61.9 ± 57.4 min/day), and evening (35.5 ± 21.5 min/day). While no statistically significant changes were found after the intervention for time in different PA intensities when the parent and child were together (p > 0.05), ES indicated that some changes were occurring. After the intervention, when the intervention parents were with their child there was a small decrease in sedentary behavior (ES = -0.17) and small increase in vigorous PA (ES = 0.23), whereas the control parents saw a small increase in sedentary behavior (ES = 0.16) and no change in vigorous PA (ES = 0.0). Further, the PA intervention did not change the amount of time spent in different PA intensity combinations in the parent-child dyads (p > 0.05). ES indicated, after the intervention, that there was a small decrease for controls (ES = -0.20) in the time parents spent in light PA while child was in moderate PA but did not change among intervention participants (ES = -0.04). CONCLUSIONS: On a given day parents and children are spending over 2 hours in Co-PA. A family PA intervention may be a way to improve Co-PA levels in parents and children. Research/Creative Activity Award, East Carolina University