Linking Autonomy Supportive Parenting with Their Children’s Autonomous Motivation Toward, and Participation in, Physical Activity

Background: Health behaviors and motivations within family units are likely to be associated with the motives and behaviors of other family members. A potential mechanism for these relations is that parents citing autonomous motives toward physical activity are more likely to support their child’s autonomous motivation to be active. The current study tested a model specifying relations between parent autonomous motivation and parent, child, and parent-and-child joint physical activity behavior with parent autonomy supportive parenting, child perceived autonomy support, and child autonomous motivation specified as mediators of the autonomous motivation-child physical activity relationship. Methods: Data on autonomous motivation, autonomy supportive parenting, perceived autonomy support, and physical activity, both alone and jointly between parents and children, were collected from a sample of 88 Finnish parent-child dyads and analyzed using a partial least squares structural equation modelling. Results: Findings indicated associations between parent autonomous motivation and parent and joint parent-child physical activity, and an indirect effect of autonomy supportive parenting on child physical activity mediated by child perceived autonomy support and autonomous motivation. Conclusions: Results provide a potential explanation for relations between parental motives and child physical activity as a function of supportive parenting, and signpost potential targets for family-based behavior change interventions.