Science / Medicine : Inactive Parents Give Youth Wrong Message

Physically inactive grown-ups may be giving the wrong message to their children, suggests a study that says most parents of youngsters ages 6 to 9 fail to exercise enough.

The study also found that most parents of children in that age group do not exercise with their youngsters. But parents who exercised more by themselves and with their children tended to have leaner youngsters, the study said.

“The message to parents is that they need to make this (exercise) more a priority in their lives, and they need to allow it to structure their behavior with their children,” said James Ross, project director for the National Children and Youth Fitness Study II.

If parents show by example that exercise is important and make it part of a child’s routine, it will “establish a pattern that will continue to guide the child on a lifelong basis,” he said in a telephone interview.