When Doing Something Together, Moms and Kids Are More Likely to be Sedentary than Physically Active
Physical versus Sedentary Activities
When mothers spend ten minutes or more doing something with their children, it is more likely to be sedentary (mentioned by 98% as something they had done with their child in the last week) or involve a screen (85%) than be physical (80%). The top three activities mothers and children do together are eating a meal (90%), watching television (79%), and doing homework (65%). Half (50%) had gone out together for a walk, run, or ride and a quarter (26%) had played a sport, runaround game, or danced together.
Mothers are more likely to engage in a physical activity with their pre-teen children (87%) than their teen children (70%).
Performance on Critical Health & Well-being Indicators
Mothers were invited to evaluate their child's health and well-being (as well as their own) using the following five indicators:
- Child/mother is not overweight
- Child/mother gets enough sleep
- Child/mother gets enough physical activity
- Child/mother mainly eats a healthy diet
- Child/mother spends less than two hours a day in front of a screen outside of school (TVs, computers, tablets, or phones)
Less than a third of mothers (28%) say that all five indicators apply to their child. While the majority of mothers say that their child gets enough sleep (75%); are not overweight (73%); get enough physical activity (71%); and mainly eat a healthy diet (60%), only half (46%) say that their child spends less than two hours a day in front of a screen (outside of school).
Mothers' evaluation of their own health and well-being falls well behind their evaluation of their children's health and well being:
- 9% of mothers say that all five indicators apply to themselves (as compared to 28% of mothers who say that all five indicators apply to their children);
- 18% of mothers don't identify themselves on any indicator (as compared to 4% of mothers who don't identify their children on any indicator).
Compared to their evaluation of their children on the individual indicators, mothers are much less likely to say that they themselves:
- get enough sleep (43% as compared to 75% for their children);
- are not overweight (39% as compared to 73% for their children);
- get enough physical activity (36% as compared to 71% for their children);
- spend less than 2 hours a day in front of a screen (30% as compared to 46% for their children).
The only health and well-being indicator where mothers rate their own performance as comparable to that of their children is for mainly eating a healthy diet (57% and 60% respectively).
Children Getting the Recommended Amount of Physical Activity
Just over half of mothers (56%) calculate that their children got the recommended seven hours or more of physical activity in the last week. Mothers say that their children are most likely to get at least some physical activity in their home or their yard (84% say that their children got at least 30 minutes of physical activity there) followed by school or preschool (77%).
More than half of mothers (53%) say that their children got at least half an hour of physical activity by attending a class, team, or club premises (outside of normal school hours) in the last week.
Mothers that say that their children get seven hours or more of physical activity a week are more likely to:
- be younger (64% for those aged 18 to 34 years old as compared to 55% for those aged 35 to 54 years old and 45% for those aged 55 years old and over);
- have a household income of $50K or more (61% as compared to 48% for those with a household income of under $50K);
- have a college degree (62% as compared to 51% for those without a college degree);
- work full time (59% as compared to 52% for those who are not employed);
- be married or cohabiting (58% as compared to 48% for single mothers);
- be referring to preteen children (62% as compared to 46% for those referring to teenage children).
Of the 44% of mothers who calculate that their child got less than 7 hours of exercise, just over half (56%) said that they were getting enough physical activity. In other words, a quarter of mothers (25%) say that their children are getting enough physical activity, though the children are actually getting less physical activity than the recommended 7 hours or more.
One in eight mothers (12%) say that their children only engaged in 30 minutes or less of physical activity in the last week.
Finding Time for Physical Activity
Most mothers (67%) say that it would be easy to do an extra ten minutes of physical activity with their children everyday. Only 14% say it would be difficult. It would, however, be easier for mothers, and their children, to do the extra ten minutes of physical activity by themselves (71% and 80% respectively).
Mothers who say that it would be difficult to do an extra ten minutes of physical activity with their children everyday are more likely to be:
- working full-time or not be employed (16% and 14% respectively as compared to 7% for those who work part-time);
- referring to teenage children (17% as compared to 11% for those referring to a pre-teen children).
Barriers to Physical Activity in Children
The top barrier to children doing an extra ten minutes of physical activity everyday is "other activities" (mentioned by 42% of mothers) and, in particular, "homework" (mentioned by 21%). The "child's attitude" (14%) and the "draw of the screen" (12%) also rank among the top excuses for their child not getting more physical activity in their day.
"Homework" is a particular barrier for teens (25% as opposed to 18% for pre-teens) and for girls (24% as opposed to 17% for boys).
Influences
Mothers see themselves as the top influencer when it comes to their children's engagement in physical activity (66% of mothers say they do a "good job" influencing their child). Other top influencers include their children's friends (mentioned by 49% of mothers) and their children's fathers (48%).
Mothers who say that they are doing a "good job" influencing their children are more likely to be young (71% for 18 to 34 year olds as compared to 55% for 55 year olds and over) or to be referring to preteen children (73% as compared to 56% for those referring to teenage children). Mothers who say that their children's father is doing a good job are more likely to:
- have a household income of $50K or more (52% as compared to 42% for those with a household income of under than $50K);
- be married or cohabiting (55% as compared to 24% for single mothers);
- or to be referring to preteen children (57% as compared to 33% for those referring to teenage children).
Mothers are also most likely to see themselves as the person that could be doing a "better job" when it comes to influencing their children's engagement in physical activity (mentioned by 42% of mothers). After themselves, mothers identify their children's fathers (37%) as the person that could be doing "a better job".
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted on behalf the Alliance for a Healthier Generation between April 17 and April 29, 2015. For the survey, a national sample of 1,154 mothers aged 18 and older with biological, adopted, or step children 5 to 18 years old (who all live, for at least part of a normal month, at the same address) was interviewed online. One of the mother's children was randomly selected to be the focus of the questions. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points for all respondents.
The data were weighted to the U.S. current population data by gender, age, region and household income based on Census data. Statistical margins of error are not applicable to online polls. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error and measurement error. Where figures do not sum to 100, this is due to the effects of rounding.
For more information on this news release please contact:
Timothy Amsbary Vice President Ipsos Public Affairs 202.420.2036 [email protected]
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