Nooshin Benar, Ayoub Behrozi

University of Guilan, Iran

Introduction

Unhealthy eating patterns have been associated with prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents in cross-sectional studies [1]. In addition, unhealthy eating behavior’s often come together with physical inactivity increasing the risk for developing health problems [2]. Physical inactivity is increasing among adolescents in the U.S., especially among girls [3]. However, individuals at risk of low levels of physical activity (e.g. girls) may be more responsive to parental influences. Therefore, gender differences in the relationship between parental influences and physical activity must be critically examined. Despite the centrality of family influences on child development, few studies have examined the causal relationship between family-related factors and adolescent physical activity [4]. An understanding of these relationships is essential to the development of family-focused interventions programs that promote adolescent physical activity, and ultimately prevent overweight and obesity. also it did suggest that increased awareness about identification and causes of overweight is necessary [5]. Actually, both parents of children have in influence on their children, father role modeling and enjoyment and mother’s encouragement are important factor facilitating children’s attraction to physical activities [6]. Moreover, Snethen et al. (2008) stated that the essential of mothers’ role is to increase children’s self esteem [7]. For these reasons, many researchers and scholars have directed their research work toward a better understanding of the social and motivational factors that may underlie children’s Physical Activity. Therefore, the initial steps for increasing children’s participation in physical activity is to change their life style through different socialization agencies, then the most powerful socialization agency for children are their parents and peer, especially during the childhood years [8, 9]. Anderssen and Wold (1992), reported that for adolescent girls, after friends, support from their mothers was the most significant predictor of exercise [10]. For example, in the longitudinal study conducted by Bois and colleagues, mothers’ perceptions of their children’s sport competence directly influenced children’s perceptions of their own sport competence [11]. Showed that mother-daughter relations typically improve when they participate in physical activity together (Ransdell et al., 2001) [12].Parker’s (1983) "optimal parenting" range, indicating positive relations between mothers and daughters before and after the interventions [13]. When, examining the gender relationships between parental physical activity orientation and overweight children’s attraction to physical activity, boys received significant influence from both parents but girls did not [14]. Previous research has yielded conflicting evidence about the comparative importance of mothers versus fathers on children’s physical activity [15]. For reason, we would pay attention to how Mothers influent their girls overweight and participation in physical activities. In fact, Parenting styles describe how a parent communicates with his/her child [16]. In general, previous studies due, Four parenting styles have been defined: authoritarian (demand obedience), authoritative (use reasoning), permissive (acquiesce to child's demands), and uninvolved [17]. In contrast, Baumrind’s (1978) work reduced these multiple groups into three (Authoritarian, Authoritative and Permissive) in order to study parental style in younger children and mainly in relation to consumption behaviour [18]. Yusuf (2004) found one of the reasons for the poor performance of the students may be due to the parenting style adopted by their parents [19]. Specifically, there is evidence suggesting that parenting style is associated with adolescent over weight, and physical exercise. [20]. Generally, Results of study showed that Parental monitoring for activity was positively related to children’s activity and Parental use of reinforcement styles for activity was positively related to children’s physical activity And Parental discipline was not significantly related to children’s unhealthy eating or physical activity and also Parental control was not significantly associated with children’s healthy eating or physical Activity [21]. Schmitz and colleagues found that adolescent girls whose mothers demonstrated an authoritative parenting style reported higher levels of physical activity and lower levels of sedentary behavior [4]. Several cross-sectional studies have found an association between authoritative parenting style (high responsiveness, high demandingness) and lower youth BMI, more frequent physical activity [21]. A recent US study with 76 US youths reported that children with permissive mothers were the most active and logistic support for activity was associated with increased activity [22]. In contrast, reflect other evidence that parenting behaviors which are too directive or restrict children's autonomy are associated with lower levels of child physical activity [23]. Also, research showed that parents who are authoritarian (i.e. highly directive, demanding and strict) regarding health behaviors increase their children’s risk for overweight. Maternal permissive parenting was associated with higher levels of physical activity than authoritative parenting, but associations differed by child gender and type of physical activity [24]. In general, previous studies due it are also unclear whether activity-related parenting practices differ by parenting style. We have been interested in exploring how and why children may or may not develop such a positive collection of beliefs. Less frequently, the associations between parents physical activity and children’s physical activity are studied according to sex - Mothers ≈ daughters (or sons); Fathers ≈ sons (or daughters) [25]. For reason Given the lack of research in Rasht families on the relationship between parenting styles of mothers with physical activity levels and overweight among female students the purposes of this research were (a) to assess links between mothers’ parenting strategies and girls’ physical activity; and (b) to examine the influence of mothers on girls’ physical activity. (c) to examine the influence of mother on girls overweight.(d) to assess links between mothers’ parenting strategies and girls’ over weight.

Participants and methods

The target population consisted entirely of female students among high schools in city of Rasht in Iran. Among them 360 female selected randomly. Details on sampling and methods have been reported elsewhere [26]. Current study is functional in a descriptive way from view of using attained results. The target population consisted entirely Three hundred sixty 14- to 17- years- old students from 11 high schools in Rasht of city. The study was approved by a University of Guilan ethics committee, and informed parental consent was obtained. Purpose and necessity of study for every experiment have been explained.

Procedures

The Parenting Style Questionnaire (PSQ) was used to measure parenting practices of parents [27]. The PSQ consists of 32 items which under 3 scale: Authoritarian (12 question, including: 2, 4, 6, 10, 13, 16, 19, 23, 26, 28, 30, 32), Authoritative (15 question, including: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 18, 21, 22, 25, 27, 29, 31) and Permissive (5 question, including: 8, 15, 17, 20, 24). After translate of standard Parenting Style Questionnaire (PSQ), and adjust of some question, questionnaires were evaluated by professors of faculty of physical education and sport sciences. The reliability guided Cronbach Alpha value of 0.83. A 5-point Likert scale, form never (1) to always (5) was used with the PSDQ in this study. Also the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (PAQ-A) provide a general measure of physical activity levels for youth from grades 4-12 (approximately ages 8-20). After translate of standard Physical Activity Questionnaire (PAQ), and adjust of some question, questionnaires were evaluated by professors of faculty of physical education and sport sciences. The reliability guided Cronbach Alpha value of 0.85. The Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (PAQ-A; Kowalski, Crocker, & Kowalski, 1997) [28], were developed and validated. The PAQ-A is self-administered, 7-day recall questionnaires that measure general moderate to vigorous physical activity levels during the school year. Generally, the PAQs have had relatively strong correlation coefficients with other physical activity measures compared to other recall measures [28, 29]. The PAQs’ measurement of general physical activity levels is one its strengths because it is difficult to precisely measure intensity, frequency, and duration of young people’s activities, especially with self-report [29].The Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (PAQ-A) have been used to classify children and adolescents into different activity levels [28, 30]. The PAQ-A (a modified version of the PAQ-C) was developed to measure general levels of physical activity in adolescents. This instrument uses nine questions to assess a child physical activity in a variety of situations and time (e.g., school, recess, after school, evening, weekend, etc.). Each item is scored on a 5- point Likert scale with higher scores reflecting a greater level of physical activity. The average of the items is used as the activity level for the child (score range from 1 to 5). Validation studies have demonstrated good reliability and convergent validity. How to calculate the final PAQ- A activity summary score - Once you have a value from 1 to 5 for each of the 8 items (items 1 to 8) used in the physical activity composite score, you simply take the mean of these 8 items, which results in the final PAQ-A activity summary score. A score of 1 indicates low physical activity, whereas a score of 5 indicates high physical activity.

Analysis

For data analysis the descriptive (mean and standard deviation), Kolmogorov -Smirnov test and Pearson correlation coefficient were used. Highest education within the household was obtained by Mothers report. To account for the season of assessment, the hours of daylight on the first day of data collection was calculated. Also height and weight were measured, and a body mass index (kg/m²) standard deviation score (BMI SDS) was calculated [31].

Results

Subject anthropometric data are present in table 1. In figure 1 Show mean percentage physical activity levels among female students.

Table1. Subjects’ (Mother and Female) characteristics

Fig 1: mean percentage physical activity levels among female.

Mean and standard deviation of the physical activity levels among female are shown in table 2.

Table2. Mean and standard deviation of the physical activity levels among female

In Table 3, the result shows that, there were no significant correlation between the indices physical activity levels and Authoritarian (r=0.083), Authoritative (r=0.104) and Permissive (r=-0.031) in mother.

Table3. Associations between physical activity levels and Parenting Style (Authoritarian, Authoritative and Permissive)

In the table 4, Results shows that Parenting Style mother (Authoritarian and Authoritative) and prevalence overweight in female students were significant and were not significant between parenting style (Permissive) and overweight in female students.

Table4. Associations between Body Mass Index and Parenting Style (Authoritarian, Authoritative and Permissive)

We also know that parental modeling of physical activity is positively associated with a child's physical activity [9].For reasons that few studies have assessed mediators of parenting influence on adolescent physical activity [32]. the purpose of the present study was to determine whether mothers parenting styles are associated with physical activity levels and Overweight in 14- to 17-years old children lived city of Rasht in Iran. The result table 3 showed that were not significant correlation between the indices of physical activity levels and Authoritarian, Authoritative and Permissive parenting styles among mother. These data are similar to the study done by Summers et al (2006) [33]. Also reports the lack of association between parental monitoring and physical activity, although inconsistent with studies examining the effects of parental monitoring on other children's health behaviors [34].but, in contrast Schmitz and colleagues found that adolescent girls whose mothers demonstrated an authoritative parenting style reported higher levels of physical activity and lower levels of sedentary behavior [4]. Also, this is consistent with the limited amount of research in this area [34, 35]. Rathunde (2001) has shown that children in high support/high challenge families, when compared to other family types, spend the greatest amount of time in what he calls a state of "undivided interest," whereby they have both positive mood and a clear focus on the activity itself [36]. reflect other evidence that parenting behaviors which are too directive or restrict children's autonomy are associated with lower levels of child physical activity [23]. Also, the result table 4 shows that Parenting Style mother (Authoritarian and Authoritative) and prevalence overweight in female students were significant and were not significant between parenting style (Permissive) and overweight in female students. These data are similar to the study done by Jago et al reported that parents who are authoritarian (i.e. highly directive, demanding and strict) regarding health behaviors increase their children’s risk for overweight [37]. Parents’ physical activity orientation and parenting parenting style (e.g., role modeling, encouragement, and enjoyment) can universally and positively influence an overweight child’s physical activity involvement [46]. These data are contrast to the study done by Gortmaker et al and Dennison et al that reports a number of effective parenting styles can reduce the risk of childhood overweight. Parental monitoring of children’s dietary intake and physical activity has been associated with children’s health practices [38,39]. This contradiction may be due to a variety of factors influence such as age of subjects, culture, physical activity levels and other factors. Communication between parent and child has been recognized as a relevant factor within physical activity contexts [40]. In most cases, parente-child communication has been studied as parental encouragement for their children to participate in PA or as parental feedback given in response to their children’s PA performances [41]. In a longitudinal study of adolescents, Ornelas and colleagues [40] did not find an association between parental monitoring and physical activity despite their hypothesis that this type of parenting strategy -if either too directive or restrictive - may negatively impact children’s physical activity. Specifically, children who perceived a high support/high challenge parenting style had a significantly stronger fitness task goal orientation than children who perceived a low support/low challenge family environment [42]. The ensuing discussion will focus on the importance of these relationships for children’s participation in physical activity and some practical implications for future work in this area. Additionally, this study was cross-sectional in nature. Future studies should include longitudinal data and/or they should use the information from this study to design studies that will examine the effects of intervention activities on a child’s attraction to physical activity. Despite limitations, this study is the first, to our knowledge, to examine the associations among culture, gender, parenting, and Rasht children’s attraction to physical activity. Several practical findings can potentially influence future attempts to increase physical activity in an increasingly sedentary Rasht society. Also this is the first study of which we are aware that has explored the connections between parenting style of Mothers and children’s beliefs pertaining to Physical activity. However, findings from this study shows that there were not significant correlation between the indices of physical activity levels and Authoritarian, Authoritative and Permissive in mother.There may be several potential reasons why we found few relationships between parenting style of mothers and activity-related parenting practices. First, the sample size was small. Although sufficient to run these analyses, the loss of accelerometer data was slightly higher than expected and additional studies with larger sample sizes are warranted. Second, these findings suggest that more work is needed to understand the goals and values parents place on their child’s physical activity that may differ from their general views of parenting. Also recent studies have shown that peers and the built environment also influence adolescent physical activity [ 8, 9, 4]. Our study was not able to control for these factors in our analyses. Further studies should assess the comparative influence of parent support within the context of peer and environmental influences.

Conclusions

Mothers' parenting style was not associated with levels of physical activity and overweight among 14- to 17 years- old students. Future research could build on this study by examining associations between parental support and children’s activity using more diverse samples and families with alternative living situations by using a longitudinal design to assess the temporal sequence of parental support and children’ physical activity, by assessing additional domains of parental support, and by using a direct measure of physical activity. Finally, the mearsure of activity-related parenting practices may be useful in future research. For example, the scale could be modified to be completed by children with refrence to their parents, it could be used to asses change in parential practices across time, and it could be used to assess mediation models in intervention research. Together with the results of other studies, our results indicate that an essential component of a health promoting household environment is a well-functioning family system [43]. Thus, efforts to engage families to spend time together, communicate with each other, and develop strong family bonds are likely to promote self-esteem and, thereby, physical activity among adolescents. Also Our findings add to the growing evidence base, which suggests that parents need to be aware of their behaviors that may or may not have unintended consequences on their child’s health [44]. Future studies in this area are warranted to promote physical activity, public health professionals could encourage parents to increase logistic support for their children's physical activity. should explore the intersectionality of factors [45] such as socioeconomic status, ethnicity, Furthermore, future research race and locality with regards to the issue of family structure and children’s engagement in physical activity.

Acknowledgements

The current study was initiated and analysed by the authors. We would like to thank all of the children, parents, and schools that participated in this study. Also, would like to thank our committee members for their guidance and support throughout this process.

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Nooshin Benar
(PhD), Assistant Professor
noshinbenar@yahoo.com
Guilan University of Iran
P.O. Box 1841, Rasht, Iran.

Ayoub Behrozi
noshinbenar@yahoo.com
Guilan University of Iran
P.O. Box 1841, Rasht, Iran.

Ноошин Бенар
noshinbenar@yahoo.com
Университет Гилян, Рашт, Иран
п/я 1841, Рашт, Иран.

Айуб Бехрози
noshinbenar@yahoo.com
Университет Гилян, Рашт, Иран
п/я 1841, Рашт, Иран.