Relationship between socioeconomic and environmental correlates with children participation in organized and nonorganized physical activity

Background: Specific physical activity behaviors such as sports participation and unstructured play (e.g., outdoor play) are assumed to bring about additional health benefits including increased social integration, teamwork and social skills, emotional control, confidence, discipline, empathy, and emotional well-being.
Purpose: To analyze how the parental socioeconomic status (SES) and the parental perception of the environment associates with children’s PA, and observe how those clusters associate with children’s lifestyle and obesity levels.
Methods: Cross-sectional data were available for 6887 children aged 3-10-years. Using a questionnaire, parents reported: min/day of children’s PA and screen time, children’s eating patterns, parental perception of the neighborhood, and several socioeconomic measures (e.g., parental education level and occupation, family type, number of card in the family, and children having his/her own bedroom). Anthropometric data were objectively collected. Three PA clusters were revealed – organized PA (OPA), unorganized PA (UPA) and lower PA (LPA) – and analyzed considering family SES, parental perceived neighborhood features, and children’s lifestyle and health indicators.
Results: Higher SES was associated with OPA. PA features in the neighborhood increased the odds of OPA while parental perception of walkability features and crime rates were inversely linked with UPA and OPA. Children with LPA also failed to be within the recommendation for daily fruit intake, number of meals/day, and abdominal obesity. Children from the OPA group had higher screen time.
Conclusions: Low SES children are more likely not to participate in sports, and children who have LPA are more likely to engage in other worrying behaviors such as lower fruit intake, and display a higher prevalence of abdominal obesity.
Practical implications: To design effective interventions, further research is needed to explore more in detail the pathways relating family SES to children’s engagement in different PA behaviors.
Funding: Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (REF: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016688; 2020.03966.CEECIND).