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Popularity and Friendships and Their Relationship to Physical Activity Before and After Transition to a Higher School Grade

Background This study investigated the relationships between children’s friendship ties and their physical activity (PA) both before and after their transition to a new school year. Methods In 2011–2012, children in grades 5–8 attending a Canadian urban middle-school completed web-based health and f...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Swanson, Kenda C., Nettel-Aguirre, Alberto, McCormack, Gavin R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6695924/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31382610
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16152782
Descripción
Sumario:Background This study investigated the relationships between children’s friendship ties and their physical activity (PA) both before and after their transition to a new school year. Methods In 2011–2012, children in grades 5–8 attending a Canadian urban middle-school completed web-based health and friendship surveys two times before (“pre-transition”) and three times after (“post-transition”) they moved up in school grade. Cross-sectional associations between an average daily frequency of ≥60 min/day of moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA (MVPA) and characteristics of children’s friendships were estimated for pre-transition (n = 191) and post-transition (n = 255) data. Sociodemographic-adjusted linear regression (β) estimated associations between a child’s MVPA and friendship characteristics. Results We found positive associations between a child’s MVPA and the average MVPA of their friends at post-transition only (β = 0.61, 95% CI 0.10 to 1.13) and the number of sent friendships at pre-transition (β = 0.03, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.05) and post-transition (β = 0.02, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.04). A statistically significant interaction between popularity and friends’ average PA at pre-transition was also found. Conclusions The PA of friends and the number of school friends that a child identified are positively associated with MVPA. The estimated associations between MVPA and aspects of children’s friendships are similar for boys and girls.