Table 3. Studies concerning familial aggregation of physical activity.

Author Year Country Study design N Methods Results Parental influence Moore et al. 1991 USA 1 year follow up 100 children aged 4 to 799 mothers92 fathers Monitoring with caltrac accelometer Child of an active mother is 2.0, of active father 3.8, and of active both parents 5.8 times more likely to be active than inactives child. + McMurray et al. 1993 USA Cross sectional 1,253 families Parents: questionnaire of Exercise benefits and barries scale (EBBS)Children’s self report activity, maximal oxygen uptake. Parents’ EBBS was weakly associated with childrens VOmax: mother’s was, but father’s not. Childrens’  questionnaire was not correlated with parents EBBS. mother+ father - Stucky-Ropp et al. 1993 Colombia Cross sectional 242 children in 5Th or  6th grade and their mothers Interview. Mother`s perceived family support was correlated with children’s physical activity. + Telama et al. 1994 Finland Longitudinal 9-year follow-up 3596 aged 9-18 Questionnaire. Parents interest correlated positively with children’s physical activity. + Yang et al. 1996 Finland 3-year follow-up 1881 boys and girls aged 9-15 Questionnaire. Self reported physical activity. Children’s participation in sports was greater in families with active rather than passive parents. + Shopshire et al. 1997 USA Cross sectional 924 boys and girls aged 6 Questionnaire. Children’s physical activity could be attributed to the fathers’s, but not mother’s physical activity. father+ mother- Sallis et al. 1999 USA Cross sectional 1504 parents and children grades 4-12 Telephone interview. Family support for physical activity was one of three strong variables associated with physical activity. + Rossow et al. 1994 Norway Cross sectional 337 families Interview with both parents and adolescent. Father’s physical activity was associated with adolescent’s PA, but mother’s not. father+ mother- (+ positive association, +/- weak association,- no association)