Culture Post: Inactive Parents Tend to Have Couch Potato Kids

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

Kids are more likely to become couch potatoes — or enthusiastically active — based on what they see their parents doing day-to-day, a new study says.

The example set by moms and dads appears to contribute to sedentary or active behavior in their children, researchers report in the journal Sports Medicine and Health Science.

“Parents’ level of physical activity can directly influence their children’s habits,” said senior researcher Diego Christofaro, a professor in the Department of Sport Sciences at São Paulo State University in Brazil.

“In other words, when parents maintain a more active routine, their children are less likely to remain seated for long periods,” he said in a news release.

For the study, researchers tracked the physical movement of 182 6- to 17-year-olds for one week, as well as 161 moms and 136 dads.

Results showed that children of inactive parents tended to be more sedentary. The reverse was also true — active moms and dads had kids who followed suit.

Mothers tended to have more influence over their kid’s physical activity than fathers, researchers found. In fact, moms’ influence was more than twice that of dads.

Source: HealthDay
https://www.healthday.com/health-news/child-health/inactive-parents-tend-to-have-couch-potato-kids

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