The influence of parental psychosocial factors on school-age children's health-related physical fitness. (Volumes I and II)

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of parental physical activity levels, attitudes toward physical activity, socioeconomic status, educational levels, and past sport involvement on school-age children's health-related physical fitness test item performance levels. The health-related physical fitness levels of 384 volunteer school-age children from selected elementary and secondary schools were assessed by means of a health-related physical fitness test and the children's parents' psychosocial factors were assessed by means of a mailed parental questionnaire.;Separate one-way analyses of variance were conducted to determine if children with high health-related physical fitness levels had parents with more positive attitudes toward physical activity, higher physical activity levels, and higher socioeconomic status than the parents of children with low health-related physical fitness levels. Separate two-way chi-square analyses were conducted to determine if children with high health-related physical fitness levels had parents with higher educational levels and higher levels of past sport involvement than the parents of children with low health-related physical fitness levels. In addition, a stepwise multiple regression analysis was employed to assess the extent to which each of the parental psychosocial factors was associated with school-age children's health-related physical fitness test item percentile rank scores.;The results of the study revealed that parents' physical activity levels, attitudes toward physical activity, socioeconomic status, educational level, and past sport involvement can significantly influence school-age children's health-related physical fitness test item performance levels at different age levels. In addition, the results of the study revealed that parents' attitudes toward physical activity, socioeconomic status, educational level, and past sport involvement are significantly associated with school-age children's health-related physical fitness percentile rank scores.