The relationship of family characteristics, parental beliefs and parenting behaviours with the fundamental movement proficiency of primary school children in South East Wales

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the fundamental movement skills (FMS) of primary school children and aspects of their home environment. Four-hundred-and-eighty-four primary school children were recruited to the study, consisting of 255 boys and 229 girls, aged between 9 and 11 years. Participants were assessed on eight different FMS and placed into different ability profiles according to the similarity of their FMS proficiencies. Four-hundred-and-eighty-four parent questionnaires were completed and matched to the profile membership of the participants. For boys, positive relationships were found between their FMS ability and the variables of parent–child interaction in video gaming, parental beliefs concerning the importance of social development, motor development and children’s participation in physical activity, parental awareness of their own child’s extracurricular participation in community sports clubs and physical activity preferences. For girls, positive relationships with FMS proficiency were found for parental beliefs concerning the importance of participation in physical activity for social function and the importance of participation in physical activity for learning rules. In the case of girls only, several family characteristics were also significantly related to FMS proficiency. These were the following: the involvement of members of the extended family in their before and after-school care provision; their parents’ employment status; and their mother’s physical activity participation. In conclusion, parental beliefs and behaviours have the potential to influence children’s FMS performance and their impact needs to be considered in any interventions to improve the FMS of children of primary school age.