Davidson Gavin, Bunting Lisa, McCartan Claire, Grant Anne, McBride Orla, Mulholland Ciaran, Nolan Emma, Schubotz Dirk, Cameron Julie, Shevlin Mark
School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom.
Regional Trauma Network, Northern Health and Social Care Trust, Holywell Hospital, Antrim, United Kingdom.
Front Psychiatry. 2024 Jun 19;15:1405783. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1405783. eCollection 2024.
The benefits of physical activity for mental health and well-being and the associations between parental mental health and children's mental health have been well established. These important issues tend to be examined separately however, and there is limited research on the associations between parent and child physical activity and mental health when all considered together. While family focused practice is recommended to provide support for parents who have mental health problems and their families and includes various components (such as psychoeducation, support for mental health and parenting), promoting physical activity for parents and children is not usually a core component of these interventions.
The Northern Ireland Youth Wellbeing Survey aimed to provide estimates of the prevalence of mental health problems among children and young people. The survey also included questions about parental physical activity, parental mental health, and children's physical activity (for those aged 11-19 years). The main aim of the analysis reported in this article was to explore possible bivariate associations between parent and child physical activity and mental health and also explore these associations when all considered together. Participants were included in the analysis where there were completed interviews for the young person and one of their parents, and both young person and parent provided responses in relation to questions on weekly physical activity ( = 882).
The findings highlight the positive associations between parental physical activity and parental mental health, and between children's physical activity and children's mental health. They also explore some of the more complex interactions between these four variables, which suggest that gender may also be an important consideration. There were significant associations between father's physical activity and son's mental health, and son's physical activity and father's mental health.
These findings suggest that including support for parental physical activity and children's physical activity should be a routine component of family focused mental health interventions. It is important to acknowledge that there may be additional barriers to engaging in physical activity for families where a parent is experiencing mental health problems, and these should also be explored and addressed.
体育活动对心理健康和幸福感的益处以及父母心理健康与儿童心理健康之间的关联已得到充分证实。然而，这些重要问题往往是分开研究的，而将父母和孩子的体育活动与心理健康综合起来考虑时，关于它们之间关联的研究有限。虽然建议以家庭为中心的实践为有心理健康问题的父母及其家庭提供支持，其中包括各种组成部分（如心理教育、心理健康支持和育儿支持），但促进父母和孩子的体育活动通常并非这些干预措施的核心组成部分。
北爱尔兰青少年幸福感调查旨在估算儿童和青少年心理健康问题的患病率。该调查还包括有关父母体育活动、父母心理健康以及儿童体育活动（针对11至19岁的儿童）的问题。本文所报告分析的主要目的是探讨父母和孩子的体育活动与心理健康之间可能存在的双变量关联，并在综合考虑所有因素时探究这些关联。当青少年及其父母之一完成访谈，且青少年和父母都对每周体育活动问题做出回答时，这些参与者被纳入分析（n = 882）。
研究结果凸显了父母体育活动与父母心理健康之间以及儿童体育活动与儿童心理健康之间的积极关联。它们还探究了这四个变量之间一些更为复杂的相互作用，这表明性别也可能是一个重要的考虑因素。父亲的体育活动与儿子的心理健康之间以及儿子的体育活动与父亲的心理健康之间存在显著关联。
这些研究结果表明，将对父母体育活动和儿童体育活动的支持纳入以家庭为中心的心理健康干预措施应成为常规组成部分。必须认识到，对于父母有心理健康问题的家庭而言，参与体育活动可能存在其他障碍，这些障碍也应加以探究和解决。
