Parents who directly and actively engage their children in healthy living behaviour - instead of passively 'supporting' the behaviour - are significantly more likely to see their kids meet Canadian guidelines when it comes to physical activity, healthy eating and screen time, new research from Public Health Ontario (PHO) has found.
"In Canada, more than 30 per cent of children are overweight or obese," says Dr. Heather Manson , chief of health promotion, chronic disease and injury prevention at PHO. "Given the important role parents play in the lives of their children, we were keen to determine what types of parental behaviours were more likely to be associated with healthy living for their children. We learned that simple encouragement is not enough - active parental support is essential."
Dr. Manson and fellow PHO researchers Daniel Harrington and Evelyn Pyper looked at the relationships between parental support for their children's physical activity, healthy eating and screen time behaviours and the likelihood that their child was meeting Canadian guidelines for healthy living.
The paper titled The Impact of Different Types of Parental Support Behaviours on Child Physical Activity, Healthy Eating and Screen Time: A Cross-Sectional Study appears in BMC Public Health .
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BMC Public Health