The correspondence between child and parent pedometer steps in a Northern Canadian city

• Author / Creator

  Jodie, Stearns

• Purpose: This study examined whether parent physical activity (PA) is related to children’s PA, as measured with pedometers.
  Methods: As part of a longitudinal cohort study being conducted in Edmonton, Canada, 471 children between the ages of 6- and 10-years-old, wore SC-T2 pedometers for four consecutive days.
  Results: Significant small-to-moderate correlations between parent and child steps were found on day 1 (r = .24), day 2 (r = .24), day 3 (r = .19), and day 4 (r = .33). After controlling for covariates, parent steps remained a significant predictor of both girls (p < .001) and boys steps (p < .001). Parent steps also remained a significant predictor of child weekend (p < .001) and weekday steps (p < .001) after controlling for covariates.
  Conclusion: The study highlights the importance of parent PA modeling in promoting children’s PA and suggests that parents may be optimal targets for intervention.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Children
  • Pedometers
  • Physical activity
  • Parents
  • Modelling

• Graduation date

  Fall 2011

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R32C89

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.