Research Article
Associations between Parental and Friend Social Support and Children’s Physical Activity and Time Spent outside Playing
Table 1
Principal component analysis of the items in the parental questionnaire assessing parental and friends’ influence on children’s physical activity.
| | General parental support | Neighborhood play with friends | Parental PA | Parental PA with child |
| I pay for my child to attend a sports club (e.g. soccer, swimming) | .893 | | | | I transport my child to a sports club in the after school period | .847 | | | | I buy sports clothes and other sports equipment related to the sports that my child engages in | .763 | | | | My child attends a sports club with a friend | .671 | | | | I talk to my child about the benefits of physical activity | .607 | | | |
| My child meets some friends in the afternoon to play outside in the neighborhood | | .860 | | | There are children of the same age of my child in the neighborhood for him/her to go out and play | | .841 | | | Near our house there are houses of my child’s friends where my child can walk on his/her own to meet friends | | .829 | | | My child visits the houses of some friends for play | | .369 | | |
| During weekdays, how much time do you spend being physically active (e.g. walking, gym)? | | | .909 | | During weekends, how much time do you spend being physically active (e.g. walking, gym)? | | | .889 | |
| I take part in physical activity with my child during weekdays (e.g. walking, cycling) | | | | .849 | I take part in physical activity with my child during weekends (e.g., walking, cycling) | | | | .844 |
| Eigenvalues | 3.025 | 2.394 | 1.708 | 1.545 | Percentage of variance explained by each factor | 23.271 | 18.414 | 13.138 | 11.882 | Cronbach’s alpha of each factor | 0.828 | 0.768 | 0.767 | 0.650 |
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