Our research has shown that families, parents and carers play a key role in shaping a child's attitudes to being active and their activity levels later in life.
They can model active behaviour by taking part with children, but can also model sedentary behaviour.
Adults often facilitate access to various opportunities for their children to be active and so it's important to support them in understanding the benefits of being active.
Most current opportunities involve children playing with other children, leaving adults sidelined, but the benefits to a child's development are different when they're active with adult family members compared to when they're active with their peers. And children can also play a role encouraging their parents or carers to be active.
More than half (51%) of children and young people enjoy taking part in sport and physical activity, and enjoyment is the biggest driver of participation.
Our research has shown that 93% of children and young people enjoy taking part with their family, and 96% of adults did too. So, engaging whole families can have a real benefit, on family relationships, mental wellbeing and motivations to keep active.