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Promoting Better Health
Strategies
Families
Families play a
critical role in shaping a child’s physical activity experiences.
Opportunities and motivation to be physically active begin in the home.
Studies have found that adolescents are more likely to be active if their
parents or siblings are active; their parents support their participation
in physical activities; and they have access to convenient play spaces,
sports equipment, and transportation to sports and recreation programs.6
Strategy 1:
Include education for parents and guardians as part of youth physical
activity promotion initiatives.
Parents and guardians
can
- Encourage their
children to be active on a regular basis.
- Be physically active
role models.
- Set limits on the
amount of time their children spend watching television and playing
video or computer games.
- Plan and participate
in family activities that include physical activity (e.g., walking or
bicycling together instead of driving, doing active chores like
vacuuming and mowing the lawn, playing outside) and include physical
activity in family events such as birthday parties, picnics, and
vacations.
- Facilitate
participation by their children in school and community physical
activity and sports programs.
- Advocate for quality
school and community physical activity programs.
Physical education
teachers, health education teachers, coaches, and recreation program staff
should encourage and enable family involvement in their programs. For
example, teachers can assign physical activity-related homework to
students that must be done with their families and provide flyers designed
for parents that contain information and strategies for promoting physical
activity within the family. Coaches and recreation program staff can
involve parents in booster clubs and give them advice on how to help their
children stay active and fit. Media campaigns to promote youth physical
activity should include messages targeting parents and guardians.
A particularly
important channel for educating parents and guardians and their children
about youth physical activity is the primary health care provider.
Physicians, nurses, and others who provide health services to young people
should assess physical activity patterns among their patients, counsel
them about physical activity, and refer them to appropriate physical
activity programs. Health care providers also should encourage parents to
be role models for their children, plan physical activities that involve
the whole family, and discuss with their children the value of physical
activity.
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