Objective: To examine family- and school-based predictors of breakfast consumption, soft drink consumption and physical activity (PA) and moderating effects of gender and socio-economic status (SES).
Design: Longitudinal study (6-year follow-up), including a questionnaire about dietary and activity behaviour.
Setting: Fifty-nine Flemish elementary schools.
Subjects: Seven hundred and twenty-seven children (51·9 % girls, 51·9 % high SES, mean age 9·9 (sd 0·4) years at baseline).
Results: Having breakfast together with parents (P < 0·001) at age 10 years related to more days of eating breakfast at age 16 years. More parental soft drink consumption (P = 0·04), less soft drink availability at home (P < 0·001) and less parental permissiveness (children received soft drinks from their parents whenever they asked for it and children could take soft drinks whenever they wanted; P = 0·02 and P = 0·001, respectively) at age 10 years related to less soft drink consumption at age 16 years. A more positive parental attitude towards PA (P = 0·009), more parental encouragement (P = 0·002) and a higher rating of PA's benefit 'relaxing' (P < 0·001) at age 10 years related to more PA at age 16 years. Gender and SES did not significantly moderate any of the associations.
Conclusions: Only parental factors at age 10 years were associated with breakfast consumption, soft drink consumption and PA at age 16 years. An intervention programme at age 10 years with a strong focus on the modifiable parental factors might lead to healthy behaviour in the long term.