Adolescent’s physical activity and sleep duration: Association with parental role modeling influence and parenting style

Background: Research has shown that parental role modeling has important influences on physical activity and sleep duration of young children, but this relationship is unclear among adolescents. Meanwhile, no study investigated the influence of parenting styles on the physical activity and sleep duration of adolescents. This study therefore examined the association of adolescent’s physical activity and sleep duration with parental role modeling and parenting style.
Methods: One thousand and thirty-nine adolescents and parents from Hong Kong participated in this study. Adolescents wore the wa- terproof activPALTM for 7 consecutive days, time (minutes) spent in moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) and sleep duration (hours) of the adolescents were calculated. Physical activity (light intensity physical activity (LPA), MVPA) of parents and sleep duration were collected using self-reported questionnaires. Parenting style were measured by adolescent reported Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ). Linear mixed models (LMM) were conducted to assess the relationship between parents’ role modeling of LPA and MVPA, parenting style and the MVPA of adolescents (girls or boys). Association between parents’ role modeling of sleep duration, parenting style and the sleep duration of adolescents were also investigated by LMM. Analyses were split by girls and boys.
Results: Of all the participants, data from 656 pairs of adolescents and their parents (adolescents: 14.6 ± 1.6 years, 48% of girls; parents: 46.0 ± 7.1 years, 60% of mothers) were available and valid for analyses. Adolescents had 39.5 ± 15.6 mins/day of MVPA and 8.0 ± 0.9 hours/day of sleep duration, with no gender difference. Parents had 87.3 ± 121.4 mins/day of LPA, 56.8 ± 126.5 mins/day of MVPA, and 7.4 ± 1.2 hours/day of sleep. Mothers slept longer than fathers (7.5 ± 1.1 vs 7.2 ± 1.2 hours/day). Fathers parenting boys more authorita- tive than girls (26.0 ± 12.2 vs 23.3 ± 11.7). Results showed that there was no significant relationship between adolescents’ physical activity and parental role modeling. Authoritative parenting style from father was inversely associated with MVPA of sons (-0.49, 95% CI = -0.95 to -0.03 mins/day). Sleep duration of mother was associated with sleep duration of daughters (0.20, 95% CI = 0.02 to 0.36 hours/day), with a similar association between father and sons (0.16, 95% CI = 0.01 to 0.32 hours/day).
Conclusions: Parental role modeling has influence between mother-daughter pairs and father-son pairs for sleep duration. Adolescent boys are less physically active when their fathers had a more authoritative parenting style. Further studies could investigate more mechanics of parenting style influence on physical activity of adolescents.