Parental encouragement is positively associated with outdoor active play outside of school hours among 7–12 year olds

Background. Physical activity is important for children’s physical, mental, and social well-being. Outdoor active play is an important yet unstudied domain of children’s physical activity. The objective of this study was to determine if parental encouragement is associated with the frequency that children engage in outdoor active play outside of school hours. Methods. Participants consisted of 514 children aged 7–12 years and one of their parents. Parents completed a survey that included four questions that assessed how frequently they used verbal cues to encourage their child to play outdoors. Points were assigned to each response and averaged across the 4 questions, and based on this average participants were assigned to quintiles. The survey included seven questions that asked parents to assess how frequently their child played outdoors outside of school hours. Points were assigned to each response and summed to create an active outdoor play frequency score. General linear models assessed associations between parental encouragement and outdoor play while controlling for individual, family, and neighborhood covariates. Results. The mean outdoor active play frequency score increased significantly across quintiles of the parental encouragement score as follows: 6.0 (standard error = 0.7) in quintile 1, 9.8 (0.6) in quintile 2, 11.4 (0.6) in quintile 3, 16.2 (0.9) in quintile 4, and 23.3 (1.3) in quintile 5. After adjusting for covariates, the mean outdoor active play frequency score was almost three times higher in the highest parental encouragement quintile than in the lowest quintile (20.4 vs. 7.8). Conclusions. Parents use of verbal cues to encourage their children to play outdoors was independently associated with outdoor active play among 7–12 year olds.