title: Do adolescents and parents report each other's physical activity accurately?
abstract: In research concerning socialization into sports there is a need to assess children's reports of parental physical activity. Reports by young adolescents and their parents of each other's leisure-time physical activity and related issues were compared with self-reported measures. A total of 755 family units in western Norway, consisting of 755 13-year-olds, mean age 13.3 +/- 0.3 years (425 boys, 330 girls, 644 fathers and 732 mothers) completed a self-administered physical activity questionnaire. Pearson's between self-reports by parents and the reports by their children varied between 0.56 (P < 0.001) and 0.07 (nonsignificant). Pearson's r between off-springs' self-reported physical activity and reports by their parents varied between 0.41 and 0.55 (P < 0.001). The results support cautious use of young adolescents' reports of parental physical activity.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Health Promotion, University of Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Anderssen
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aas
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jakobsen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001290:Attitude; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents; D010809:Physical Fitness