Objective  To examine the prevalence and influencing factors of physical activity (PA) parenting practice among urban parents of preschool children for providing evidences to develop strategies on promoting PA of the children in China.

  Methods  Using non-probabilistic sampling and a self-designed questionnaire, we conducted an online survey among 4 074 parents of healthy kindergarten children at 9 large and medium-sized cities in southern regions of China during February 2021. Contingency table chi-square test was adopted to explore the influence of different PA parenting practices on young children′s PA.

  Results  Of the 3 959 participants with valid responses, 39.28% and 27.12% reported having a at least 30 minutes′ leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) 2 – 3 times and once a week; while, 20.86% reported not having LTPA every week. Among all the participants, 58.59% reported the PA parenting practice at the frequency of 1 – 2 times/week and aerobic exercise and chasing/role-playing game were the most popular parent-child PA, being reported by 55.83% and 52.68% of the participants having the practice. In terms of family support to children′s PA, the top three considerations of the parents were allowing a child to play in parks or other outdoor places frequently (selected by 87.82% of all the participants), buying sports equipment to meet children′s PA needs (69.87%), and encouraging children to play freely (69.21%); only 26.02% of the participants chose financially supporting children to take program in sports training facilities. Significant impact factors for PA parenting practice included parental role disparity (χ² = 23.31, P < 0.001), gender stereotype-related differences in parents′ cognition on required PA time (χ² = 9.91,P = 0.042) and intensity (χ² = 17.14, P = 0.001) for the boys or girls.

  Conclusion  Physical activity parental practice may be more effective in family-based support to young children′s physical exercise if the parents could have correct cognition about parental role and gender stereotype.