Preschool children's preferences for sedentary activity relates to parent's restrictive rules around active outdoor play.

This study identified that parenting practices are not only associated with children's active and sedentary behaviours (parent-reported), but also with how children prefer to play (parent-reported). Future research should seek to clarify the relationship between children's activity preferences and parent's use of screen-time to reward and control their child's behaviour, given the developmental and behavioural health risks associated with excessive media/screen exposure in early childhood. Further research should investigate whether competing societal values of the importance of encouraging children's risky play and the need to prevent children from being injured, coupled with parent's busy schedules are contributing to parental ambivalence regarding how to promote active play for their children. Finally, research should be conducted to establish the relationship between physical activity parenting practices and children's objectively-measured activity level.