Parent Interviews on Co-Participation of Physical Activity with their Preschool-Aged Child: Examining Thoughts and Racial Differences

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed at understanding parent’s perceptions about co-participation of physical activity with their preschooler and compared these perceptions between White and Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) parents. Methods: A sample of 30 parents of preschool-aged children (2-to-5-years-old) were interviewed on their current physical activity interactions with their child and what future activities they would want to do. Results: The sample included both BIPOC (n=16) and White (n=14) parents. All parents were mothers with the majority of them being married and over half met physical activity recommendations. Parents mentioned it was important to be active with their child, especially given the amount of technology present in today’s society. Physical activity co-participation allowed bonding time, educational moments, and healthier lifestyles. Common barriers for physical activity co-participation were time, compromising for a preschoolers age and mood, resources and availability of space, weather, and health. Common facilitators mentioned were social interactions, planned physical activity events, weather, and availability of space to be active. An important and unique theme discussed by the parents was the social aspect that physical activity co-participation provided. These social aspects mentioned included: others being involved in physical activity with them, meaningful interactions between people during physical activity, and the impact on others from co-participation. Lastly, racial differences were found between the groups when examining physical activity co-participation among parents and children. Parent perceptions differed in thoughts on sedentary lifestyles in today’s society, modeling physical activity, and using physical activity as a way to help expend their child’s excess energy. White parents mentioned more concern about today’s society being more sedentary compared to BIPOC parents, whereas BIPOC parents mentioned more that modeling physical activity as important and using physical activity as a way to improve health and expend energy for their child. As for barriers, White mothers noted that distractions due to screen time was an important barrier whereas BIPOC mothers mentioned inadequate resources for physical activity and health concerns. Facilitators for physical activity co-participation only had one difference noted and that was due to availability of space for physical activity, where Whites mentioned having more space to be active and BIPOCs mentioning they would want more space to be active with their child. Lastly, regarding social aspects, White parents highlighted physical activity co-participation resulted in more educational moments, but BIPOC mothers highlighted the importance co-participation has for motivating others to be active and the need for setting goals to support future physical activity. Discussion: These findings can be used to create future interventions that meet the needs of parents and preschool-aged children when promoting physical activity co-participation. Because there were differences in perceptions between Whites and BIPOCs, certain areas should be considered over others when developing a parent-based physical activity intervention for specific races.