Relationships and potential mechanisms between parental sociodemographic characteristics, concerns, and children’s physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic

Relationships and potential mechanisms between parental sociodemographic characteristics, concerns, and children’s physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic

Physical activity (PA) is essential for children’s health, yet the majority of children in Canada do not meet the recommended levels, a situation worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined the relationships and potential mechanisms between parental sociodemographic characteristics, parental concerns, and children's PA. The study utilized proxy-reported data from the 2020 Statistics Canada survey, Impacts of COVID-19 on Canadians - Parenting during the Pandemic (n = 5,863 parents of children aged 6-14 years). Multiple logistic regressions, Spearman correlations, and mediation analyses were employed. Nearly half of the parents expressed high concerns about their children’s PA (47.7%) and reported that their children had low to moderate PA levels during the pandemic (46.4%). Parental concerns regarding the amount of children’s PA was the key predictor of children’s PA with large effect size. Parental concerns also partially explained the relationship between parental visible minority status and children’s PA (47% of variance explained) as well as between parental immigrant status and children's PA (33% of variance explained). These results suggest that while the pandemic's impact might have been uniform across families, parental concerns associated with visible minority and immigrant statuses likely contributed to lower levels of PA among their children. As we continue to navigate the recovery process from the pandemic, future strategies promoting children’s PA could prioritize supporting parents from marginalized communities with increased concerns regarding their children’s PA.