Baku, Azerbaijan| 9 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL of ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. 5. No. 6. November, 2013 Fatma I. Kerkez, V. Tutal, F. Akcinar. Factors limiting physical activity and leading to obesity in kindergartens research article. International Journal of Academic Research Part A; 2013; 5(6), 9-16. DOI: 10.7813/2075-4124.2013/5-6/A.2 FACTORS LIMITING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND LEADING TO OBESITY IN KINDERGARTENS RESEARCH ARTICLE Fatma Ilker Kerkez*, Varol Tutal, Faruk Akcinar Inonu University, School of Physical Education and Sports, Malatya (TURKEY) *Corresponding author: fatma.kerkez@inonu.edu.tr DOI: 10.7813/2075-4124.2013/5-6/A.2 ABSTRACT It is important to determine and provide a solution for limiting factors starting from the preschool period firstly to make children gain healthy living habits such as regular physical activities. The purpose of this study is to determine the factors limiting physical activity in kindergarten which largely shapes the living habits of a child during preschool period. A survey, which was developed by the researchers for this purpose, was applied on kindergarten teachers working in city center (n=180) and families that sent their children to kindergartens (n=600). As a result of the study, it was determined that the family factors limiting physical activity in kindergartens are the parents' concern about their children’s getting sick, their overconfidence in kindergarten teachers knowledge and that parents consideration that their children's level of activity is enough whereas teachers thought that the insufficiency of open and closed spaces for physical activities and plays, not being able to find equipments regarding basic motor skills and the surplus of the number of students in classrooms limited the physical activity. It is considered that it was necessary to increase the awareness level of the families about the importance of the physical activity starting from the preschool period and that the possibilities for physical activity and plays should be improved and a cooperation should be ensured between families and teachers in order to make healthy living behaviors a habit and to fight obesity. Key words: Preschool, Physical Activity, Obesity, Kindergarten 1. INTRODUCTION It is reported that obesity is spreading throughout the world including children (Lobstein et al., 2004; Wang and Lobstein, 2006) and 10% of the preschool children in the United States of America are overweight and this percentage is increasing quickly (Ogden, 2002). It was reported in the studies at local and regional level, which studies the obesity prevalence in children and adolescents, that the overweight rate was high and precautions should be taken for fighting obesity (Turkish Healthy Nutrition and Mobile Life Platform, 2011). When overweight in children and the emergence of diseases due to overweight is studied, the situation was discussed at three levels by the model developed by Davison and Birch (2001) (See Figure 1). The first level is children's risk factors whereas second level is family characteristics and the third level is social, demographic and communal characteristics (Figure 1). According to this model, children's risk factors are nutrition manner of the child, physical activity level and sedentary behavioral habit such as watching TV. Effect of these factors differs from child to child according to variables such as age, gender, sensitivity to gain weight. Development of children's risk factor is shaped according to the lifestyle of the family, which forms the second level (family's manner of nutrition, activity level, nutritional information, attitude of sister/brother or friends). Social, demographic and communal characteristics, which form the third level (ethnicity, socio-economic status, physical activity and recreational facilities, programs for physical education in school) were also reported as factors affecting eating habits and weight of the child.