Project Summary
Parents are key influencers of their children’s leisure behaviours. They identify and create opportunities for their child’s continued participation in leisure activities including sport. There are a number of factors that affect a parent’s ability to support his/her child’s participation in leisure activities. Given increasing concerns about childhood obesity and the importance of involving overweight/obese children in physical activity, three objectives guided this study:
- To identify the leisure behaviour patterns of overweight and obese children aged 5 to 16 and their parents;
- To explore parents’ experiences with facilitating and supporting their child’s participation in physically active leisure;
- To determine whether and in what ways participation in parent leisure education sessions influences parents’ ability to facilitate or support their child’s engagement in physically active leisure.
The study demonstrated that parents’ personal limitations, lack of knowledge about available recreation and sport opportunities, and lack of awareness about their children’s leisure interests make it difficult to support their child’s ongoing participation in sport and physical activity. Children’s negative experiences with sport and active leisure pursuits can also be a strong influence. However, leisure education can help parents by providing them with opportunities to: acquire knowledge about available recreation and sport resources; discover their children’s interests; and develop strategies for overcoming various challenges in creating and supporting sport and active leisure opportunities.
Research Methods
Data collection involved parents who had a child who was overweight or obese participating in the University of New Brunswick’s Paediatric Lifestyle Management Program (LMP). The Paediatric LMP was a 10-week program that provided education and guidance in the area of health, nutrition, and leisure and physical activity through 3 group sessions and 7 weekly, one-on-one individualized sessions with a paediatric nurse, dietician, and leisure educator. Twenty-five parents (19 mothers, 6 fathers) ranging in age from 32 to 49 participated in the study.
Prior to beginning the program, face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were conducted with one parent from each family that focused on 1) the leisure behaviour patterns of the parent, 2) family leisure patterns, and 3) the leisure interests, behaviours, and experiences of the child who was overweight or obese. Each parent attended between 4 and 7 individualized leisure education sessions lasting 20 to 30 minutes that focused on discussing aspects of the child’s leisure (e.g., knowledge about leisure, leisure interests, and barriers to participation) and their roles as facilitators of their child’s leisure. All parents were provided with a leisure interest inventory (listing 50 leisure and sport activities) to review with their child in an effort to determine previously unidentified interests. Finally, parents participated in a semi-structured, face-to-face interview the week after they had completed the program. Questions were related to changes that had been made to their own and their children’s leisure behaviors as a result of their participation in the education sessions and to their perceived value.
Research Results
At the time they began the Paediatric LMP, children were engaged primarily in sedentary pursuits. In addition, children were not always moving while participating in a sport activity (e.g., serving as the goal keeper in soccer).
Only five of the 25 parents in the study were regularly physically active (3 times per week) at the time they began the LMP. Parents who were not active indicated lack of time and lack of energy as key reasons for their sedentary lifestyles. Mothers appeared to be less active than fathers. Ten parents, all of whom were overweight or obese themselves, identified weight-related health issues (e.g., back or knee problems, joint pain, diabetes) as limiting their ability to be physically active with their child.
Parents’ own limitations (e.g., time, ability to pay, energy, skill, unpredictable work schedule, geographical distance from a community and health) affected their ability to engage in active leisure with their children.
Parents also had difficulty overcoming children’s negative experiences in recreation and sport programs (bullying, exclusion, and inability to keep pace with the other children) that affected the child’s desire to continue participation in organized activities.
All parents reported that the leisure education component of the LMP was valuable. Parents indicated that it made them more aware of their children’s time use and ways to redirect from sedentary to more active (or developmentally beneficial) pursuits. They also acquired knowledge about active leisure opportunities available within their community and become more aware of activities that interested their children. Most parents reported an increased awareness of their influence on their child’s leisure behaviours and the importance of being a good role model. Some parents were confident they had discovered or developed strategies for overcoming some of the barriers they had faced in engaging their child in active leisure (e.g., had developed time management skills; were now aware of free or low-cost programs). Many parents identified making greater efforts to engage in physically active family leisure. At the end of the program, most parents had either enrolled or planned to enroll their child in an active leisure recreation or sport program. In most cases, limits on the amount of screen time children were allowed each day had been put in place.
Policy Implications
Policy aimed at enhancing children’s sport participation may require more consideration of parents’ role as the facilitators of children’s sport participation. Initiatives that provide opportunities for children to “drop-in” and receive instruction may support parents who want to gauge interest or are not able to commit to a regularly scheduled program. Partner initiatives such as KidSport are critical to reaching those children who most need sport and whose family may not have the financial means. The impact of negative first experiences on continued participation suggests the importance of including, as part of the training of recreation and sport leaders, ways of welcoming, encouraging, and supporting first-time participants. Specific efforts by youth-serving organizations to create safe and supportive environments that lessen incidences of bullying and peer harassment may be an important step to ensuring children’s continued participation.
Next Steps
Future research should address the long-term impact of leisure education sessions; overweight and obese children’s first-hand perceptions of their experiences with participation in sport and active recreation; and the role of youth serving recreation and sport organizations in protecting children from exclusion and victimization and their management of bullying incidents when they occur.
Key Stakeholders and Benefits
The following organizations may be interested in the findings:
- Government of New Brunswick Department of Wellness, Culture, and Sport
- Recreation New Brunswick (and other provincial recreation organization)
- Sport NB (and other provincial sport bodies)
- City of Fredericton – Community Services (Recreation Division)
- Town of Oromocto – Leisure Services and Tourism
- Village of New Maryland – Recreation and Leisure Services
- Fredericton YM-YWCA