Training, Competition & Health

Abstract

Regular and sufficient physical activity is essential for a healthy development of children and adolescents. Current guidelines recommend a minimum of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily for children and adolescents. Despite this, in Germany, only 22% of girls and 29% of boys are sufficiently physically active, pointing to a great need for physical activity promotion. Health behaviours develop in and depend on social contexts, of which family is the most important. Looking at German research on physical activity in youth with regards to family as a possible determinant, the lack of longitudinal data, diversity of representative cohorts and consistent assessment methods make recommendations for health promoting programmes difficult. However, most importantly, no study addressed the role of family or parents in relation to childrens physical activity nor the interaction between family/parents and children. Understanding the role of family and parents for the development and maintenance of childrens health-related behavioral patterns is crucial for the development of effective interventions. We need to identify relevant factors, situations and contexts of beneficial or detrimental family environments and understand the underlying mechanisms of family influences. For this purpose, studies have to have family as the central research topic in relation to childrens physical activity, instead of using family as a by-product which can be considered as part of many other determinants.Key Words: Mother, Father, Parents, Physical Activity, Overweight