Physical Activity Enjoyment And Parental Behavior And Belief Differences Based On Child Sex

PURPOSE: Parent practices and beliefs influence child enjoyment of physical activity (PA), and child enjoyment of PA, in turn, positively predicts future PA participation. Given sex disparities in PA participation, motivation, and parent practices and beliefs, that relationships between parent factors, enjoyment of PA, and PA participation may vary by sex. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to test sex differences in longitudinal relationships between parent practices and child PA enjoyment from grades 3 to 9 (ages 9-15). METHODS: Data for this study comes from the longitudinal NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1,364, 51% male, 80% White). An autoregressive cross-lagged model tested whether children’s enjoyment of PA at multiple time points were associated with parent practices (e.g., days participating in PA with their child) at earlier time points. Child sex was included as a predictor for all parent factors and child enjoyment within the model. RESULTS: The composite model showed acceptable fit for CFI = 0.89, Root mean square error of approximation = 0.05, and SRMR = 0.07. Sex was a significant predictor for the number of days parents encouraged PA, participated in PA with their child, and the belief PA was important. The number of days parents encouraged PA were significantly fewer for parents of girls than boys at grades 3 (B = -0.095, p < 0.001) and 6 (B = -0.094, p < 0.01). Days parents participated in PA with their female child were also significantly fewer in grades 3 (B = -0.081, p < 0.05) and 6 (B = -0.075, p < 0.001). Parent belief that PA is important for their female child was significantly lower in grades 3 (B = -0.062, p < 0.05) and 9 (B = -0.077, p < 0.001). Female children were less likely to enjoy PA by grade 9 (B = -0.091, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Sex was observed to be associated with parent beliefs and practices in elementary and middle school in this sample. Furthermore, by the time study children were in grade 9 there was a significant difference in enjoyment of PA favoring males. These findings highlight a need to explore further what is contributing directly to differences in parent behavior and beliefs around PA around the sex of their child.