Are adolescents who do physical activity with their parents more active and mentally healthier?

Background: Adolescents who engage in physical activity experience positive mental health outcomes. However, the increasing prevalence of physical inactivity combined with high screen time use among adolescents is a growing concern. Parents play an important role in shaping adolescents' physical activity and screen time levels through active participation and involvement.

Data and methods: This nationally representative cross-sectional study used self-reported data from the 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth. The frequency of family physical activity included five categories from "never" to "daily." Outcome measures included achieving the physical activity (60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day) and recreational screen time (two hours or less per day) recommendations, as well as mental health indicators. Logistic regression analyses examined the associations between family physical activity frequency and adolescents' physical activity, screen time, and mental health, with adjustments for relevant covariates.

Results: In adjusted models, across all outcomes, results showed that a higher frequency of family physical activity was associated with better outcomes in a dose-response relationship when compared with never engaging in family physical activity. The strongest associations for daily frequency of family physical activity (compared with never engaging in it) were with high life satisfaction (odd ratio [OR]: 4.25, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.16 to 5.72) and with high perceived mental health (OR: 3.60, 95% CI: 2.62 to 4.96). Subgroup analyses stratified by gender were generally consistent with the main results.

Interpretation: A higher frequency of family physical activity was associated with a greater likelihood of adhering to the physical activity and recreational screen time recommendations and better mental health in Canadian adolescents. Family physical activity may be an important way to promote adolescents' physical activity and positively influence their mental health.