A new study has found that if children perceive their parents value vigorous team sports over TV and Computer. Children will be influenced to play outside more often in a bid to win their parents’ approval.

Researchers from Baylor College and Duke University studied a sample of 681 parents of 433 fourth and fifth graders from 12 schools in Houston, Texas, USA.

They found that those parents who conveyed the importance of high-intensity team sports to their children had more active children. Both the boys and girls watched less TV and spent less time on their computers in such households.

But, endorsing all types of exercise, both, team and individual sports, increased boys' activity levels but not girls', the study said.

"The difference between activity levels in the girls and boys had to do with the parents' attitudes toward the types of activities.

Parents encouraged sons to partake in vigorous and moderate intensity team and individual sports, and vigorous-intensity home chores, such as heavy yard work, more than they encouraged these activities for their daughters," said study co-author Cheryl Braselton Anderson.

"There still is gender bias on encouraging boys to participate in certain sports and strenuous activities more than girls," she added, according to a Baylor and Duke release.

Vigorous team sports included basketball and soccer, and moderate team sports included baseball/softball, volleyball and football.

Intense individual activity in the research included running, cycling, swimming and skating, and moderate individual activity included walking, biking around the neighbourhood and golf.

Needless to say, household chores were also included as a form of physical activity. Vigorous household chores included heavy yard work and moving furniture; moderate household chores included cleaning, raking leaves, weeding and carrying groceries.

The findings appeared in the July issue of Health Psychology.