School and Family Environment is Positively Associated with Extracurricular Physical Activity Practice among 8 to 16 Years Old School Boys and Girls
, Alberto Dorado-Suárez 2, Fabio Jiménez-Zazo 2, Nuria Castro-Lemus 3 and Susana Aznar 2,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This paper is well written and concerns the relationship between the amount of physical activity in a sample of boys and girls between 8 and 16 years and the family and school environment.
The study is aimed at extra curricular sports activity.
Because it is a cross sectional study with many school pupils and their parents, only associations or correlations can be measured.
In the title nevertheless is written: the influence of..... and must be changed . My proposal is: School and family environment is positively associated with extracurricular sports practice among 8 to 16 years old school boys and girls.
The authors mention the limitations of their study, but I should ask them in the discussion to propose a study that can also research causal relations.
Their proposal to do a longitudinal study can be challenged, because repeated measurements alone , without intervention is not enough.
I miss in abstract , results and conclusion the finding that boys are always more extracurricular more active than girls . This is in agreement with other longitudinal studies from Kemper et al in 2013 in Pediatric Exercise Science and from Armstrong et al in 2011.
I also miss the result that commuting as physical activity is not related with immediate environment and a reason why not?
Small comments:
figure 1 misses percentage on the vertical axis
table 3 misses abracket in OR of hours of television : (1.05-1.35)
Author Response
We thank reviewer 1 for his/her time and effort. We will answer all questions individually below.
R: This paper is well written and concerns the relationship between the amount of physical activity in a sample of boys and girls between 8 and 16 years and the family and school environment.
The study is aimed at extra curricular sports activity.
Because it is a cross sectional study with many school pupils and their parents, only associations or correlations can be measured.
In the title nevertheless is written: the influence of..... and must be changed . My proposal is: School and family environment is positively associated with extracurricular sports practice among 8 to 16 years old school boys and girls.
A: We have changed the title as it has been suggested by the reviewer. We have also changed the term “Influences” to “associations” and “correlations”, we apologize for this mistake. Only associations have been found in our study due to the study design, i.e. cross sectional.
R: The authors mention the limitations of their study, but I should ask them in the discussion to propose a study that can also research causal relations.
A: We thank the reviewer for pointing out this aspect, we have added it in the limitation and future applications section.
R: Their proposal to do a longitudinal study can be challenged, because repeated measurements alone , without intervention is not enough.
A: This proposal has been deleted
R: I miss in abstract , results and conclusion the finding that boys are always more extracurricular more active than girls . This is in agreement with other longitudinal studies from Kemper et al in 2013 in Pediatric Exercise Science and from Armstrong et al in 2011.
A: We thank the reviewer for pointing out this mistake. The result that boys practice the most extracurricular physical activity is now included in the abstract, results and conclusions.
R: I also miss the result that commuting as physical activity is not related with immediate environment and a reason why not?
A: Well spotted! For us it has been a surprise not finding any association. Our intention to further investigate the reason for this outcome, has been included in the discussion section
Small comments:
R: figure 1 misses percentage on the vertical axis
A: The data has been added
R: table 3 misses a bracket in OR of hours of television : (1.05-1.35)
A: We thank the reviewer, it has been now corrected
Reviewer 2 Report
This is a well-conducted study in an important area. The study shows how relevant extracurricular sports practice is and how it changes over the years. Furthermore, the data show the influence that different factors may have, which is relevant when designing more appropriate sports strategies for this population.
Author Response
We very much appreciate the comments of reviewer 2. Thank you!
Reviewer 3 Report
The subject of the article is very interesting. There is a need to study the environment as a promoter of active behaviors by the general population and adolescents in particular.
The introduction can be improved. There are studies that approach this topic from similar points of view. There are works on the impact of parents, of school ... in the practice of extracurricular sports activities.
Statistical analysis does not reveal the influence that variables have on the practice of extracurricular physical activities. It only allows us to affirm what children who do extracurricular sports activities do. They do not allow in any case to predict the behaviors.
Author Response
Thank you for your comments. The study design (i.e. cross sectional) does not allow us to consider determinants, but we feel our study is a first step to understand the importance of extra-curricular activities and their socio-environmental influences. Family influences on physical activity behaviour has been already studied, and we wanted to include them in the context of extra-curricular activities.
Reviewer 4 Report
The article addresses the possible influence of the school and family environment on practice of extracurricular physical activity among children and adolescents.
Consider it to be an important contribution to the field of sports practice but I suggest the following minor recommendations to the authors.
- The authors are recommended to search for articles published in the last 5 years in the Web of Science and Scopus with the keywords "extracurricular physical activity" in order to enrich the bibliographic references in the Theoretical Foundation
- In the title I recommend replacing the term sports practice with extracurricular physical activity practice since the objective of the work is to analyze physical activity and not so much sports practice.
- On line 16, I suggest replacing the word REGION with Spain, since it informs the reader more about the scope of the study.
- In figure 107 specify in the text what is meant by extracurricular sports practice, if it includes only federated sport, or also non-federated sport, or substitute physical activity.
- On line 154, indicate that the results refer to the sample with which you worked and not to the total of children and adolescents in Castilla La Mancha.
- It is suggested to include in the discussion and / or conclusions section a few brief words confirming whether or not the study sample met the recommendations of the World Health Organization in relation to the levels of practice of physical activity given that it is named in the Justification and it would be consistent to include a brief analysis once the results of the study are known.
Finally, comment that the authors make correct observations regarding the limitations of the study, which is appreciated in the writing of scientific texts for future research in the same thematic lin
Author Response
We thank reviewer 4 for his/her time and effort. We will answer all questions individually below.
The authors are recommended to search for articles published in the last 5 years in the Web of Science and Scopus with the keywords "extracurricular physical activity" in order to enrich the bibliographic references in the Theoretical Foundation
A: New bibliographic references have been added and the databases revised according to the reviewer’s suggestion.
In the title I recommend replacing the term sports practice with extracurricular physical activity practice since the objective of the work is to analyze physical activity and not so much sports practice.
A: We have changed the term accordingly.
On line 16, I suggest replacing the word REGION with Spain, since it informs the reader more about the scope of the study.
A: the word “region” has been changed to “Spain”
In figure 107 specify in the text what is meant by extracurricular sports practice, if it includes only federated sport, or also non-federated sport, or substitute physical activity.
A: This issue has been addressed.
On line 154, indicate that the results refer to the sample with which you worked and not to the total of children and adolescents in Castilla La Mancha.
A: This issue has also been corrected.
It is suggested to include in the discussion and / or conclusions section a few brief words confirming whether or not the study sample met the recommendations of the World Health Organization in relation to the levels of practice of physical activity given that it is named in the Justification and it would be consistent to include a brief analysis once the results of the study are known.A: We thank the reviewer for this comment. This issue has been included in the discussion as one of the limitations of our study. Total hours of physical activity were not analyzed in depth so we cannot know if they meet the requirements of the World Health Organization.
