Effects of Parent-child Co-participation in Physical Activity

NCT ID: NCT07236346

Last Updated: 2025-11-19

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 40 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2025-01-01
• Study Completion Date: 2025-10-01

Brief Summary

Literature reviews and studies of physical activity (PA) interventions suggest that active parental involvement is an important component of supporting PA levels in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Parents have also viewed these interventions as a valuable source of social support and motivation for themselves and their children with ASD; however, parents have reported a lack of PA interventions specifically involving parental involvement to increase PA levels in their children.

To our knowledge, only a handful of PA studies in the literature have examined PA levels or fundamentals movement skills (FMS) in children with ASD and have included parental involvement. Overall, findings from previous studies have shown that PA interventions that include parental involvement successfully improve PA levels and FMS in children with ASD. Given the potential benefits and the increasing interest in family-based interventions, supporting parent-child co-participation in PA may be a possible strategy to promote PA among children and parents. To date, studies on parent-child co-participation in PA have mostly focused on improving PA levels and FMS in children with ASD using web-based interventions such as social media, websites, and online systems. Furthermore, with the exception of two studies, the focus of these studies was on PA levels and not FMS in children with ASD. Furthermore, not all previous studies have created PA groups with and without parental involvement to explore whether parent-child co-participation truly makes a difference. We addressed these limitations in the current study and used a design that included a parent-child PA group, a child PA group, and a control group to examine both PA levels and FMS in children with ASD. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of parent-child co-participation on PA levels and FMS in children with ASD.

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: OTHER
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

parent-child group

This group included parental involvement. Parents and children engaged in PA together three days a week, each session lasting approximately one hour.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

A parent-child co-participation in physical activity

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Parents in PCG-A engaged in PA with their children three days a week. All parents attended the sessions and engaged in partner warm-ups, partner functional exercises, partner games, and partner cool-downs with their children. Children in CG-B engaged in PA with their peers three days a week without parental involvement, engaging in partner warm-ups, partner functional exercises, partner games, and partner cool-downs. Both intervention groups were compared with a control group. We instructed the control group to maintain their normal routines and activities throughout the intervention and asked them to participate in a pre-test and post-test. A demonstration strategy was used to teach the activities. We provided immediate feedback to encourage and support children with ASD and their parents. We also chatted with the children and parents at the end of each daily physical activity session to evaluate the effectiveness of the session and prepare them for the next session.

child group

This group did not include parental involvement. Only children with ASD engaged in PA three days a week, each session lasting approximately 1 hour.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

A parent-child co-participation in physical activity

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Parents in PCG-A engaged in PA with their children three days a week. All parents attended the sessions and engaged in partner warm-ups, partner functional exercises, partner games, and partner cool-downs with their children. Children in CG-B engaged in PA with their peers three days a week without parental involvement, engaging in partner warm-ups, partner functional exercises, partner games, and partner cool-downs. Both intervention groups were compared with a control group. We instructed the control group to maintain their normal routines and activities throughout the intervention and asked them to participate in a pre-test and post-test. A demonstration strategy was used to teach the activities. We provided immediate feedback to encourage and support children with ASD and their parents. We also chatted with the children and parents at the end of each daily physical activity session to evaluate the effectiveness of the session and prepare them for the next session.

control group

This group continued their normal routines and activities throughout the intervention.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

A parent-child co-participation in physical activity

Parents in PCG-A engaged in PA with their children three days a week. All parents attended the sessions and engaged in partner warm-ups, partner functional exercises, partner games, and partner cool-downs with their children. Children in CG-B engaged in PA with their peers three days a week without parental involvement, engaging in partner warm-ups, partner functional exercises, partner games, and partner cool-downs. Both intervention groups were compared with a control group. We instructed the control group to maintain their normal routines and activities throughout the intervention and asked them to participate in a pre-test and post-test. A demonstration strategy was used to teach the activities. We provided immediate feedback to encourage and support children with ASD and their parents. We also chatted with the children and parents at the end of each daily physical activity session to evaluate the effectiveness of the session and prepare them for the next session.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• willingness to participate in the study,
• being the primary guardian of a child with ASD between,
• having an ASD diagnosis confirmed GARS-2-TV,
• being between the ages of four and eleven,
• being able to walk independently.

Exclusion Criteria

• those who do not attend at least one of the sessions of the training program,
• children with physical health problems (based on self-report and clinical diagnosis) will be excluded from the study.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 4 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 11 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Bayburt University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Erkan Yarımkaya

Assoc. Prof. Dr

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

Work

Bayburt, Bayburt, Turkey (Türkiye)

Countries

Turkey (Türkiye)

References

1. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 5th ed. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association; 2013.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

Related Links

https://bayburt.edu.tr/en/personel/erkan-yarimkaya-p1151

Personal web site

Other Identifiers

BU-SPBF-EY-01

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id