TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2019//
TI  - Popularity and friendships and their relationship to physical activity before and after transition to a higher school grade
JO  - International journal of environmental research and public health
A1  - Swanson, Kenda C.
A1  - Nettel-Aguirre, Alberto
A1  - McCormack, Gavin R.
SP  - e16152782
EP  - e16152782
VL  - 16
IS  - 15
N2  - <i>Background</i> This study investigated the relationships between children's friendship ties and their physical activity (PA) both before and after their transition to a new school year. <i>Methods</i> In 2011-2012, children in grades 5-8 attending a Canadian urban middle-school completed web-based health and friendship surveys two times before ("pre-transition") and three times after ("post-transition") they moved up in school grade. Cross-sectional associations between an average daily frequency of ≥60 min/day of moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA (MVPA) and characteristics of children's friendships were estimated for pre-transition (<i>n</i> = 191) and post-transition (<i>n</i> = 255) data. Sociodemographic-adjusted linear regression (β) estimated associations between a child's MVPA and friendship characteristics. <i>Results</i> We found positive associations between a child's MVPA and the average MVPA of their friends at post-transition only (β = 0.61, 95% CI 0.10 to 1.13) and the number of sent friendships at pre-transition (β = 0.03, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.05) and post-transition (β = 0.02, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.04). A statistically significant interaction between popularity and friends' average PA at pre-transition was also found. <i>Conclusions</i> The PA of friends and the number of school friends that a child identified are positively associated with MVPA. The estimated associations between MVPA and aspects of children's friendships are similar for boys and girls.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1661-7827
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16152782
ID  - ref1
ER  -