Health professionals and researchers encourage parents to be active with their children. When parents act as role models for music-making or participate in PA together with their children they serve as optimal resources for the intergenerational transmission of daily behaviors (Jago et al. 2014; Solomon-Moore et al. 2017). Furthermore, parental support mechanisms, including the informational, emotional, appraisal, and instrumental, are positively and strongly associated with children’s PA (Trost & Loprinzi 2011). Interventions targeting both parents and children may generate a reduction in SB and an increase in PA among the children (O'Dwyer et al. 2012).
2.4.1 Transmission of musical behaviors and children’s music-related development
The early sharing of musical activities by parents and children are shown to support the children’s development and well-being. Early engagement with music within the family, and especially before the age of seven (Hallam 2015), has been found to play an important developmental role. Lamont (2008) suggests that the home is the most important and influential place for musical exposure, covering a large part of children’s waking hours. Lamont (2008) also considers that the musical experiences of children reflect the family dynamics.
Putkinen and colleagues (2013) reviewed how informal musical activities with parents at home, as early as ages two or three, may promote auditory abilities in childhood. Further, as little as one year of active music training can be detected in greater gray and white matter volumes in the motor-related areas and motor tracts of the brain (Hallam 2015). Two years of music education and active listening to music is evident in musical aptitude tests (Ukkola-Vuoti et al.
2011). Therefore, using music in a range of activities is well justified.
Lamont (2008) studied children’s musical engagement at the age of 3.5.
She found that the children’s musical exposure was happening in their homes, at nursery, and in the car, and that the music listened to was largely chosen by
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the children themselves. She also found that exposure to music was very high, covering 81% of the children’s waking hours (Lamont 2008).
Music is used mainly for entertainment, including TV and video watching, and it is also used for general and musical play, where music is listened to, sung with, or played on an instrument (Lamont 2008). Mothers choose music for background purposes, while children select music to use as central to an activity (Lamont 2008). The social aspects of activities may also play a key role in early musical experience (Putkinen, Saarikivi, & Tervaniemi 2013).
Bidirectional parent-child actions, such as shared attention, turn-taking, and being playful during active music participation, have been associated with improved parent-child interactions and self-regulation skills (Pasiali 2012;
Williams et al. 2015).
The effect of parents on their children’s musical and music-related development is expressed through support, education, and modeling (McPherson 2009; ter Bogt et al. 2011; Putkinen, Saarikivi, & Tervaniemi 2013).
Mehr (2014) reported an intergenerational link between parental song frequency in childhood and musical behavior in later life. By listening to music or singing together, by taking the child to concerts, by encouraging the child to play an instrument, or by playing music at home, parents may model their child’s music taste and interests (ter Bogt et al. 2011; Mehr 2014). Thus, all musical interventions for young children have to be relevant to their parents as well.
2.4.2 Transmission of sedentary behavior and physical activity
Early childhood is the most important period for reducing sedentary habits because children are highly receptive to instruction and encouragement (Jones et al. 2013). At this time, children’s lifestyle behaviors are still being established and are malleable (Marsh et al. 2014) to the parents’ social support for the child (Beets, Cardinal, & Alderman 2010). Parents’ support includes the instrumental, conditional, motivational, and informational (Beets, Cardinal, & Alderman 2010). The parents’ role is recognized to be essential because the sustained benefits of reduced SB may carry over into adulthood (Jones et al. 2013).
The literature points to the importance of parents’ role modeling on their children’s SB and their screen time. Accelerometer-measured sedentary time among five- to six-year-old children is found to associate positively with their parents’ sedentary time (Matarma et al. 2017). Among children under seven years of age, screen viewing is associated with age, ethnicity, family TV viewing, and access to media use (Hoyos Cillero & Jago 2010; Jago et al. 2014; 2016).
Parents’ active involvement in their children’s daily activities has been shown to decrease children’s stationary time (Marsh et al. 2014). Unfortunately, due to the role modeling of parents’ behavior, parents may also be encouraging their children to be sedentary while indoors (Gray et al. 2015).
Studies on intergenerational transmission have shown that parents play a critical role in their children’s PA. Telama and colleagues (2014) show that the basis for a physically active lifestyle is created very early in childhood. Parents’
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who have high PA levels are systematically associated with their children’s higher PA levels until early adulthood (Kaseva et al. 2017), with the stability of PA behaviors remaining moderate or high from youth to adulthood (Telama et al.
2014). The association between parents’ and children’s PA is evident until midlife, but is found to weaken as the parents and children age (Kaseva et al. 2017).
Parental involvement, participation in PA, and direct supervision are important components of children’s PA involvement. Fathers are reported to engage in the direct support, co-participation, and encouragement of their children’s PA with higher frequency than mothers (Laukkanen et al. 2018;
Laukkanen, Sääkslahti, & Aunola 2020). Family support, access to home equipment, and the child’s enjoyment of PA are all positively related to three- to five-year-old children’s MVPA (Dowda et al. 2011). In addition, the parents’
own PA, their enjoyment of PA, and their perception of the importance of the child’s PA involvement are all related to family support (Dowda et al. 2011).
However, Laukkanen and colleagues (2015) found that four- to seven-year-old children’s accelerometer-measured MVPA decreased during family-based PA intervention when parents were supposed to act as promoters for PA. Solomon-Moore and colleagues (2017) also reported that external regulation by parents is associated with less PA among five- to six-year-old children. Thus, it is not clear how parents should supervise or engage in their children’s PA.
2.4.3 Parents’ influence on intervention implementation and enjoyment Parents’ influence on the level of their children’s commitment to music (McPherson 2009) and to PA (Rebold et al. 2016) and parental involvement have been mentioned as key components of children’s performance (Wiens &
Gordon 2018). The promotion of parents’ supportive behaviors and their involvement in their child’s exercise activities have been found to motivate and increase children’s enjoyment of sport (Sánchez-Miguel et al. 2013).
Parents play a critical role in their children’s feelings of competence, autonomy, relatedness, and purposefulness (McPherson 2009), all of which have an effect on the child’s motivation to exercise. Parents’ intrinsic motivation and intention to engage in regular family-based PA is positively associated with children’s MVPA (Solomon-Moore et al. 2017). Further, mothers’ expectations of their children’s physical competence have been found to predict the children’s self-perceived physical competence, independent of their actual physical performance (Bois et al. 2002).
Parental support is likely to increase the child’s intrinsic motivation, while ignoring the child’s engagement in activities decreases their motivation (Ryan &
Deci 2000; McPherson 2009). For busy parents, precise goal setting might be the additional impetus that prioritizes their children’s PA above other competing demands (Brown et al. 2016). However, as the child grows, freedom from adult control, rules, and structures is also found to motivate children to engage in active play (Brockman, Jago, & Fox 2011).
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2.5 Theoretical frameworks for examining the influence of