Relationships between Physical Activity Parenting Practices and Children’s Activity Measured by Accelerometry with Children’s Activity Style as a Moderator—A Cross Sectional Study

The objective was to examine the associations between physical activity parenting practices (PAPP) and children’s levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and time spent sedentary (SED) during non-school time in weekdays and weekends when children’s activity style was taken into account. Study participants were 88 children (mean age 6.3 (SD 0.3) years); 51.0% girls) and their parents who took part in A Healthy School Start Plus in Sweden. The independent variables included PAPPs Structure, Neglect/control, and Autonomy promotion and children’s activity style as moderator, assessed through validated parent questionnaires. Dependent variables were the MVPA and SED in minutes, measured by accelerometry. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the associations between PAPPs and children’s MVPA and SED with children’s activity style as a moderator. No significant associations between the PAPPs Structure, Neglect/control, and Autonomy promotion and measures of physical activity were found (p > 0.13). The moderating role of activity style improved the model fit and the final model had a reasonable fit to the data. Our results suggest that in future studies, with the aim to explore the relationship between PAPP and children’s physical activity, the activity style of the children should be included as a moderator.