Family Contexts in Middle Childhood Physical Development

Children’s motor coordination and skill level are affected by the opportunities provided by parents. More specifically, parents influence children’s activity choices, such as sports participation, by providing (or not) the means to experience these activities. These might include participating in the activity with the child, buying athletic equipment, and providing or arranging children’s transportation to and from the athletic event (Fredricks et al., 2005). Also, children who are White, from the Northeast and Midwest, from intact families, and whose parents have higher educational levels were more likely to participate in organized sports. Children who come from families with an older brother also participate in sports more, presumably because they are influenced by the participation of their older siblings (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001; Videon, 2002).

Because parents are responsible for monitoring the amount of time children spend watching television, they can reduce the time spent on this activity and encourage children to engage in more cognitively stimulating activities such as reading. An enriched environment is necessary for optimal brain development. Parents greatly influence the types of physical, intellectual, and motoric experiences children have in middle childhood that ultimately affect development.