Article

PURPOSE: To explore how parents of children with cerebral palsy (CP) experience
their child's participation in physical activities and to identify facilitators
and barriers for being physically active and reducing sedentary behaviour. METHODS: Twenty-five parents of sixteen children, aged 8-11 years old with CP,
with varying gross motor, cognitive and communicative functions and with
different cultural backgrounds, participated in focus group or individual
interviews. Content analysis was used for analysis.
RESULTS: Five subcategories
addressing children's participation in physical activity were found: "Belonging
and taking space in the family", "Important persons facilitating and hindering",
"Friends important but hard to get", "Good for the body but challenging" and
"Availability and opting out possibilities". The subcategories built the main
category "Protecting and pushing towards independence", expressing the challenges
parents experienced when their child wanted to be physically active. CONCLUSIONS:
Parents desire competent persons to be available for support in participation in
physical activities. They want support in finding friends for their child to be
physically active with. Family culture and attitudes affect their child's
motivation for being physically active and should be taken into account when
designing interventions for increased participation in physical activities and
for reduced sedentary behaviour in children with disabilities. Implications for
Rehabilitation Friends and competent adults facilitate participation in physical
activities and reduce sedentary behaviour. Information on accessible and tailored
physical activities is an important facilitator for participation in physical
activities. Service planning and design of interventions may be facilitated by
taking the individual family culture into account.

Langue : ANGLAIS