Purpose: The purpose of the study was to determine the relation between parents’ physical activity and a child’s
physical activity in leisure time and to identify the extent parents engage in physical education of their children.
Methods: The research was conducted among randomly selected parents of children aged 7-10 years living in Cracow.
The study involved 334 parents (children aged 7-8 years), 365 (children aged 8-9 years) and 317 (children aged
9-10 years). The diagnostic survey method was used in the study, and the basic technique was a questionnaire. The
questionnaire was designed to evaluate the level of parents’ physical activity, their children’s physical activity, and
parents’ interest in their children’s physical education. The SPSS 21 (IBM Corp., 2012), chi-square signifi cance test and
Spearman rho correlation analysis were used for the statistical analysis of the data. Results: The results have shown
that the level of parents’ engagement in the physical activity of children at a school age (85.1%) was very low. The
parents’ physical activity was clearly aff ected by their education and socio-economic status. The fi ndings have also
indicated that the highest number of children aged 7-10 (39.8%) pursue physical activity at an average level. The
highest level of physical activity was detected in a small group of children (4.1%) and low and very low in 34.7% of
participants. The level of parents’ interest in the physical activity of children was mostly moderate (45.4%). However,
a considerable number of parents (41.4%) exhibited a low level of interest. Conclusion: The level of physical activity
of parents and their children in leisure time is low. It was found that a child’s depends on family socio-economic
status, parents’ educational background, their physical activity and engagement in physical education of a child.
Physical Activity Patterns of Children in Toronto: The Relative Role of Neighbourhood Type and Socio-economic Status