Motivation and physical activity of parents and body mass index of children footballers

The im of this study was to check if there is a relationship between parental motivation and physical activity with physical activity, food desire and consumption and the body mass index of their sporting children. For this purpose, a medical check-up was carried out on 176 football players (170 boys and 6 girls; mean age M=7.3 SD=.16) belonging to the Municipal Football School of Arahal (Seville); and of the categories alevin (33 players), benjamin (49), prebenjamin (44) and iniciacion (50). The children's body mass index was calculated and then their parents were asked to complete a parental motivation questionnaire, the ad-hoc questionnaire on their children's diet, and to answer questions about their own and their children's physical activity. Descriptive, correlational, comparative, regression and discriminant analyses were performed. Results showed that parental physical activity predicted normal body mass index in children, while more hours spent in non-sport extracurricular activity (behavioural condition) and excessive food consumption, higher food craving (cognitive condition) by children were associated with overweight or obesity. Both results were independent of the type of motivation parents had about their children's sport practice.