Family structure and the association with physical activity-Findings from 40 countries participating in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study

Ellen Haug; Otto Robert Frans Smith; Kwok Ng; Oddrun Samdal; Adilson Marques; Alberto Borraccino; Jaroslava Kopcakova; Leila Oja; Anne-Siri Fismen

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0300188

Family structure and the association with physical activity-Findings from 40 countries participating in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study

PLoS One. 2024 Apr 17;19(4):e0300188. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0300188. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Ellen Haug^{1

2}, Otto Robert Frans Smith^{2

3}, Kwok Ng^{4

5

6

7}, Oddrun Samdal¹, Adilson Marques^{8

9}, Alberto Borraccino¹⁰, Jaroslava Kopcakova^{11

12}, Leila Oja¹³, Anne-Siri Fismen¹⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Promotion and Development, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
² Department of Teacher Education, NLA University College, Bergen, Norway.
³ Department of Health Promotion, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Bergen, Norway.
⁴ Faculty of Education, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
⁵ Physical Activity for Health Research Centre, Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Health Research Institute, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
⁶ School of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Eastern Finland, Finland.
⁷ Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla, Finland.
⁸ CIPER, Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
⁹ ISAMB, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
¹⁰ Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences Public Health and Paediatrics, University of Torino, Orbassano (TO), Italy.
¹¹ Department of Health Psychology and Research Methodology, Faculty of Medicine, P.J. Safarik University in Kosice, Kosice, Slovakia.
¹² Olomouc University Social Health Institute, Palacky University Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic.
¹³ National Institute for Health Development, Estonia.
¹⁴ Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Inndalsveien, Bergen, Norway.

Abstract

Background: The family has been acknowledged as central to developing physical activity (PA) beliefs and behaviours. However, increased diversity in family structures has developed over the last decades. This study examines the association between family structure and PA among adolescents and cross-national variations in the associations.

Methods: The data are from the 2013/14 Health Behaviours in School-Aged Children study, involving nationally representative samples of 11-, 13- and 15-year-olds (n = 211,798) from 40 countries. Multilevel Poisson regression analysis was used to examine the associations between family structure and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and vigorous physical activity (VPA) by age, gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and geographic region.

Results: Living with one versus two parents was associated with a reduced likelihood of daily 60 min MVPA for boys (IRR = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.92, 0.99) and ≥ 4 times/week VPA (IRR 0.93, 95% CI: 0.91, 0.95). This impact on MVPA differed across individual-level SES (high SES; IRR = 0.92, (p <0.05), low SES; IRR = 1.04, (ns)), and was for VPA only significant for those with siblings (IRR = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.91, 0.96). Cross-country variations in the association between living with one versus two parents were observed, most pronounced for VPA. These differences varied by region, primarily explained by country-level SES differences between regions. The likelihood of daily 60 min MVPA also increased with siblings in the main house (IRR 1.11, 95% CI: 1.07, 1.14), and ≥ 4 times/week VPA decreased with grandparents in the main house (IRR 0.91, 95% CI: 0.89,0.94).

Conclusions: Family structure correlated with PA, but cross-country differences exist. The findings are relevant for the development of policies and programs to facilitate PA, especially in countries where living with one versus two parents was unfavourable. Additional country-specific research is needed to identify challenges for engaging in PA related to family structure.

Copyright: © 2024 Haug et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Child
Exercise*
Family Structure*
Health Behavior
Humans
Male
Schools
Social Class

Grants and funding

The Slovak HBSC data collection and JK was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Support Agency under Contract no. APVV-22-0078. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.