Promoting the Physical Activity of the Children - Research Proposal Example

?The Role of Parents in Promoting the Physical Activity of Their Children The role of parents in keeping their children healthy does not end up in providing proper nourishment and attending to their needs during times of sickness. In particular, parents should ensure that their children maintain a healthy lifestyle by encouraging them to exercise regularly and to engage in sports and other healthy physical activities. According to Welk (1999), parents can play different roles in promoting healthy physical activity among their children. This paper identifies those roles and collates peer-reviewed studies to identify the best practices that parents may adopt to enrich their children’s healthy physical activity. Background of the Study The popularity of computers and other electronic gadgets nowadays is increasingly causing a problem concerning the youth. Attracted to technological gadgets, young people make it a habit to sit at the computer and play games or surf the Internet all day instead of doing some physical activities such as playing softball, strolling at parks, or playing with other kids at the backyard. In fact, the current literature confirms the great reduction in the physical activities of the youth today. In a study conducted in London, Brodersen, Steptoe, Boniface, and Wardle (2007) noted the increase in sedentary behaviours and the reduction in physical activity especially among 11-12 and 15-16-year-old children. Moreover, Sue et al. (2002) determine the same notable reduction in physical activity among the youth in Cincinatti, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The current situation poses a threat to the physical health and mental well-being of young people. According to Brustad (2010) and Troiano and Flegal (1998), the lack of activity among adolescents has worsened the obesity situation. Moreover, sedentary behaviour due to excessive playing of computer games could lead to other serious problems such as carpal tunnel, poor eyesight, and even Parkinson’s disease or other debilitating illnesses, which could come out earlier than expected. Given this, parents should take an active part in promoting health among their children. Physical activity is one important health aspect that should concern every parent. The current literature reports the many benefits of physical activity including preventing chronic diseases and enhancing overall health. Sothern, Loftin, Suskind, Udall and Blecker (1999) report physical activity as a means to reduce low density lipoproteins and in turn to increase high density lipoproteins, improve glucose metabolism especially among diabetes patients, and improve strength, self-image, and self-esteem of individuals. Similarly, Warburton, Nicol and Bredin (2006) provide evidence for the benefits of physical activity. The study they conducted showed that primary and secondary means of prevention of several chronic diseases (e.g., diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, hypertension, depression and osteoporosis) and premature death were more achievable through regular physical activity. In this regard, the authors highly recommend increasing the current rate of physical activity especially among the youth. Furthermore, according to Pate, Robinson and McKenzie (2006), the growing obesity problem strongly implicates the need to expand physical education programs in schools especially in the adolescent stage. Schools should consider adopting implementation standards as regards physical education activities and enrolment. Nevertheless, ensuring an active lifestyle that allows prevention of diseases caused by sedentary practices is not just the role of schools, physical fitness instructors, or health workers. Rather, it is an important role that every parent should play in order to ensure the health and overall well-being of their children. In line with this, Pate, Robinson and McKenzie (2006) propose that parents should take part in planning and designing the physical activities of children in school. This is possible through volunteering in parent-school committees and directly joining the school’s activity programs. Many researchers are concerned about the future of young people and believe that parents play a big role in the physical well-being of their children regardless of the children’s age (Anderssen and Wold, 1992; Brustad, 1996). According to Brustad (2010), children usually get exposed to different types of physical activity through the family. Although toddlers undergo typical stages of psychomotor development, their environment plays a big role in making them more or less active individuals. By providing space to walk on, parents train their children to move about in the house and encourage physical activity. Also, parents serve as the guide and planner of physical activities for their children. For instance, parents who want their children to learn how to play the piano or skate on ice may influence their children to do the said activities by providing access and exposure to such activities. Welk (1999) identifies four roles that parents can play in promoting the physical activity of their children. These include parental encouragement, involvement, facilitation, and role modelling. Parental encouragement Parental encouragement includes verbal and nonverbal forms of encouragement for children to live an active life. Letting children watch TV when they could be playing at the park is a nonverbal way of tolerating them to sit in front of the TV instead of climbing monkey bars or playing hide and seek. Parents should know that there is more benefit in doing physical activities than watching TV for long hours. Although the study conducted by Biddle, Gorely and Stensel (2004) found out that the physical activity of the subjects was not affected by TV, leaving children to watch TV for long hours could influence them to prefer sedentary activities when they grow older. Serving them fancy foods while watching TV could even encourage them more to be sedentary. Doing these things may also result in health and attitude problems later on. As such, parents should encourage their children to do more physical activities like dancing and skipping rope. According to Welk (1999), parental encouragement is a very important factor in promoting physical activity. Encouragement to exercise regularly or do some physical efforts should be done by parents especially in the toddler years because those are the formative years. In particular, parents should be aware of their children’s psychomotor development. Keeping a calendar record of children’s first step, first jump, and so on will help monitor progress or deficiencies, if children have any. Consequently, parents should also be the first to note their children’s physical capabilities or needs. This way, they can think of more strategies for encouraging their children to do active play or perform a dance or a movement. In a study conducted by Klohe-Lehman et al. (2007), there was a close link between obesity of mothers and decreased physical activity of their children. The purpose of the study was to teach obese mothers some methods for losing weight and to do more physical activities in order to increase the physical activity of their children. It was found out that mothers who lost weight and increased their physical activities provided more physical activities for their children 0–5 years old. According to Campbell and Hesketh (2007), obesity starts from childhood. Nevertheless, as Brodersen, Steptoe, Boniface, and Wardle (2007) discovered, obesity is at its height among adolescents. Thus, parents should always be conscious of what they eat and how much physical activities they perform to avoid having obese children. In the same manner, parental encouragement to do physical activity may increase children’s physical exertion. Aside from those given above, parental encouragement could also be in the form of attending games of children, watching children play in the backyard (Ward, Saunders and Pate, 2007), displaying medals won in sports events, talking about awards, hobbies, or accomplishments in physical activities to friends and family, and so on. Biddle and Goudas (1996) recommend promoting physical activity by enhancing the children’s awareness of their own competence. Parental involvement Parental involvement may mean doing physical activities together or getting directly involved in children’s activities. Involvement in physical activities does not necessarily mean enrolling in the same fitness program or playing basketball to teach one’s son. Rather, it could simply mean fetching children from their ballet lessons or providing them the right kinds of food for the physical activities of children. Nevertheless, exercising together and performing activities along with children are definite signs of parental involvement. Increasing parental involvement could definitely increase the rate of physical activity of children. Hager and Beighle (2006) propose using a physical activity calendar to monitor the activities of children and even parental involvement. In the calendar, either or both parents should commit dates when they would join their children in the activity. The calendar will serve to summarise the number of days both parents and children have spent on physical activity, and what physical activities were more stimulating and valuable. Welk, Wood and Morss (2003) suggest that parental involvement includes being aware of the competency of their children. Knowing their children’s strengths and weaknesses in doing physical activities is a key to encouraging them to exert more efforts in a particular skill. Parental facilitation Parental facilitation refers to providing means to promote physical activity. Ward, Saunders and Pate (2007) refer to parental facilitation as instrumental support. On their own, children will tend to just play around, watch TV, or do some activities that they have access to. The daily activity that children will likely engage in is greatly dependent on their environment. A child exposed to an active environment will likely be active. In particular, those who have immediate access to the sea will likely learn to swim while those who live near a playground will tend to be playing in the playground most of the time. The availability of facilities or equipment for physical activity is related to the skill and physical activity of children. Considering that children do not have the means to purchase playground or sports equipment, parents are the ones who should provide for these needs. Thus, the means provided by parents directly affect the rate of physical activities of children. Considering the inability of children to access means for physical activity, parents play the important role of facilitation. Parental facilitation includes enrolling children in sports activities or simply buying them a ball or a bicycle to play with. For Craig, Goldberg and Dietz (1996), parental facilitation includes providing access to facilities and programs such as enrolling children in swimming lessons or ballet classes. Parental facilitation may be initiated during toddler years by supervising or teaching very young children to hop, jump, run, climb short stairs, or play the swing. Later, as the child grows up, parental facilitation may be demonstrated by driving the child to a park or a safe place to ride a bike or play ball games with other children. Providing access and means to physical activity does not end the moment the children grow up. Parents of grown-up children may still play the role of facilitation by setting up a home gym, organising outings such as mountain climbing, skiing or swimming. Parental facilitation in the latter years would emphasize the importance of keeping in shape and maintaining good health among adolescents and adults alike. Parental modelling Parents serve as the main motivators for children to live an active and healthy lifestyle. Therefore, parents, themselves should be aware of their responsibility to be healthy and engage in physical activities. Perhaps the most important role of parents in promoting physical activity is parental role modelling. Children usually look up to their parents and copy what their parents do. Thus, parents who set good examples to their children may find it easier to motivate children to perform physical activities. Being a role model means setting examples for children to copy. In a study conducted by Moore et al. (1991), children of active mothers were seen as twice more active than their mothers while children of active fathers were four times more active than their fathers. In the same way, children whose parents watch TV more often may be expected to watch TV more than those whose parents watch less. Ward, Saunders and Pate (2007) identify the importance of the mother in providing access to physical activity or parental facilitation, which complements the important role of the father in parental involvement. As such, there is greater expectation on the father to live a physically active life. In Wright, Wilson, Griffin and Evans (2008) and Eccles and Harold (1991), gender difference was seen as a factor affecting role modelling by parents. Girls were reported to receive less and negative motivation to do physical activities than boys. Ward, Saunders and Pate (2007) propose family-based interventions to promote physical activity or respond to obesity issues. Adopting a family-based intervention means playing the role models for children. These may include exercising together, playing with the children, teaching children to do an activity, and so on. Meanwhile, highly active parents who have gained awards from sports or physical activities may serve as better models of active individuals. Furthermore, Ward, Saunders and Pate (2007) also emphasise setting limits to sedentary activities such as TV watching or computer gaming, sleeping excessively, and spending most of their time on academic study. In addition, parents should also encourage children to walk when going to school or other locations within reach by foot. Parents should explain to children the negative effects of sedentary activities. They should determine the negative consequences of sitting at the computer for long hours or not doing enough exercise. Welk (1999) believes that physical activity should be adopted as a lifestyle behaviour. This means encouraging children to do physical activity in the early morning such as exercising and doing some relevant physical activities within the day on a regular basis. In particular, this means following a physical activity routine not only for the day but for the whole week. Making physical activity a lifestyle behaviour could promote health not only for the current time but for the whole lifetime. Conclusion The current obesity problem among children and adolescents is a serious concern that should be dealt with in the level of health care management. The vast amount of studies that reveals the recurrence of obesity all over the world implies the need for immediate action and careful consideration by health experts. However, the solution to the problem may be dealt with using a backyard approach. Literally, this means encouraging children to play in the backyard just like in the olden days when baseball games or simply pitching or throwing balls were done in the backyards. Also, this could mean setting up friendly games for children in the neighbourhood or organising a dance contest for adolescents. Moreover, this could also mean allowing the kids to run around the streets and play hide and seek. On a deeper level, the backyard approach could mean going back to the olden times when parents watched their children as the latter play games in the neighbourhood. This could also mean playing with children and teaching them some sports to establish a regular family activity and develop bonding. Furthermore, the proposed approach could mean getting the community people to act together and organise physical activities for the youth. The recommended approach to the current problem suggests the complexity of the issue. In particular, getting parents involved in the physical activity of children means requiring them to devote more quality time for their children, modelling active healthy behaviour, and implementing strict home rules regarding sedentary behaviours. Worse, the recommended approach even relates to the problem of having limited home space to allow physical activities without leaving the house. Also, it brings up the issue relating to technological advancement, which is influencing the youth to decrease physical activities. Best of all is the fact that the approach implies reviewing our priorities and values regarding family set up and practices. As mentioned previously, in order for parents to encourage physical activity, they should provide verbal and non-verbal support, provide facilities, make time for active play in the park, collaborate with other community workers, and live an active physical life. Overall, while complying with these responsibilities may address the problem of obesity and improve the quality of life of our youth, they could imply a great sacrifice among parents and government authorities. 2642 words References Anderssen, N., and Wold, B., 1992. Parental and peer influences on leisure-time physical activity in young adolescents. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 63(4), pp. 341–348. Biddle, S.J.H., Gorely, T. and Stensel, D.J. 2004. Health-enhancing physical activity and sedentary behaviour in children and adolescents. Journal of Sports Science, 22, pp.679-701. Biddle, S., and Goudas, M., 1996. 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