Department of Sport Science, University of Innsbruck, Fürstenweg 185, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
Private Educational College, Division of Physical Education (KPH-ES), 6422 Stams, Austria.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Aug 19;18(16):8736. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18168736.
Low physical fitness (PF) has been associated with higher risk of suffering from different diseases. The importance of PF is evident already in early ages, as children's PF appears to be a key factor of their future PF and physical activity level. Among the variables that may have an influence on children's PF, the importance of parent's socioeconomic status and active/inactive behaviors has been stressed in several previous studies. However, previous literature has mostly reported this association through cross-sectional studies. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of parental education and self-reported parental physical activity (PA) on their children's development of PF during the 4-year duration of primary education. Using German Motor Test 6-18, the major components of PF (sprint velocity, coordination, flexibility, strength endurance, power, and endurance) were measured on a total of 371 children (46.9% girls, 30.6% migration background, 19.6% overweight/obese at the fourth test time point, compliance 70.1%) from 20 primary schools in Tyrol, Austria. Results showed that children with at least one parent with upper secondary education or above obtained significantly higher PF scores at all time points compared to children with both parents with lower secondary education and below. However, PF in both groups developed over time in a comparable manner irrespective of parental education. From the age of 9 years old, children with regularly physically active parents showed a stronger development of PF over the time compared to their peers with parents reporting irregular/no PA. Our results suggest that low-educated parents' children might be considered a special target group for interventions aiming at increasing PF. More research is needed in order to delve into the potential underdevelopment of PF in 9-year-old children whose parents have low PA levels.
身体活动水平低与罹患多种疾病的风险增加相关。儿童的身体活动水平在其早期就显得尤为重要，因为它是其未来身体活动水平和体力活动水平的关键因素。在可能影响儿童身体活动水平的诸多变量中，父母的社会经济地位以及积极/消极行为的重要性已在多项先前研究中得到强调。然而，先前的文献主要通过横断面研究报告了这种关联。本研究旨在检验父母受教育程度和父母自我报告的身体活动（PA）对其子女在小学教育 4 年期间身体活动水平发展的影响。本研究共对来自奥地利蒂罗尔州 20 所小学的 371 名儿童（46.9%为女孩，30.6%有移民背景，19.6%在第四次测试时超重/肥胖，依从率为 70.1%）进行了德国运动测试 6-18 测试，评估了身体活动水平的主要组成部分（冲刺速度、协调性、柔韧性、力量耐力、力量和耐力）。结果表明，与父母双方均受中学及以下教育的儿童相比，至少一方受过高等教育的儿童在所有时间点的身体活动水平得分均显著更高。然而，无论父母的受教育程度如何，两组儿童的身体活动水平都随着时间的推移而以类似的方式发展。从 9 岁起，与父母报告不规律/无身体活动的同龄人相比，经常进行身体活动的父母的孩子的身体活动水平随着时间的推移呈现出更强的发展趋势。我们的研究结果表明，低教育程度父母的孩子可能被视为旨在提高身体活动水平的干预措施的特殊目标群体。为了深入研究父母身体活动水平低的 9 岁儿童身体活动水平潜在的发育不良问题，还需要开展更多的研究。
