Cross-sectional associations between the screen-time of parents and young children: differences by parent and child gender and day of the week

Abstract

BackgroundGreater time spent screen-viewing (SV) has been linked to adverse health outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine whether parental SV time is associated with child SV time on week and weekend days.MethodsCross-sectional survey of 1078 children aged 5–6 and at least 1 parent. Child and parent SV was reported for weekday and weekend days. Logistic regression examined whether parental SV time was associated with child SV time, with separate analyses for mothers and fathers and interaction terms for child gender.Results12% of boys, 8% of girls and 30% of mothers and fathers watched ≥2 hours of TV each weekday. On a weekend day, 45% of boys, 43% of girls, 53% of mothers and 57% of fathers spent ≥2 hours watching TV. Where parents exceeded 2 hours TV-watching per weekday, children were 3.4 times more likely to spend ≥ 2 hours TV-watching if their father exceeded the threshold with odds of 3.7 for mothers. At weekends, daughters of fathers who exceeded 2 hours watching TV were over twice as likely as sons to exceed this level. Evidence that parent time spent using computers was associated with child computer use was also strongest between fathers and daughters (vs. sons) (OR 3.5 vs. 1.0, p interaction = 0.027).ConclusionsStrong associations were observed between parent and child SV and patterns were different for weekdays versus weekend days. Results show that time spent SV for both parents is strongly associated with child SV, highlighting the need for interventions targeting both parents and children.

Parent-child behavioural patterns related to pre-schoolers' overweight/obesity

“…Furthermore, our results are consistent with the findings of other studies (Jago et al, 2014;Kourlaba et al, 2009;Mendoza et al, 2007), which found that one of the most important behavioural determinants of young children's ST is the ST of their parents (Jago et al, 2014). However, our study complements this finding by observing different patterns for weekdays vs. weekends.…”

“…In accordance with other studies of parental proxy-reported sedentary behaviour (Cardon et al, 2016;De Craemer, Lateva, et al, 2015;Jago et al, 2014;Kourlaba, Kondaki, Liarigkovinos, & Manios, 2009), the Czech preschool children and their parents, regardless of gender and body weight level, showed higher ST at weekends than on weekdays.…”

“…However, the Czech pre-schoolers in our sample showed less daily ST compared with the US (Mendoza et al, 2007) and European pre-schoolers from Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Poland, and Spain (Cardon et al, 2016;De Craemer, Lateva, et al, 2015;Jago et al, 2014;Kourlaba et al, 2009) both on weekdays and at weekends. More specifically, the parents' proxyreported daily ST of Czech pre-schoolers on weekdays is lower by more than 20 minutes than the mean ST of the pre-schoolers from the above-mentioned six European countries (normal body weight: 51.7 CZECH minutes/day vs. 76.3 EUROPE minutes/day; overweight/obese: 49.7 CZECH minutes/day vs. 88.9 EUROPE minutes/day).…”

Directly Observed Physical Activity among 3-Year-Olds in Finnish Childcare

“…Higher parental TV viewing has been associated with increased risk for high levels of TV viewing for both boys and girls (Jago et al, 2010;Jago et al, 2014;Jago et al, 2013). Further, children who live in homes with increased access to media equipment have been shown to engage in greater TV viewing (Jago et al, 2013).…”

Media Use in School-Aged Children and Adolescents

“…Unfortunately, some parents can be distracted by media and miss important opportunities for emotional connections that are known to improve child health. 53,54 One research study found that when a parent turned his or her attention to a mobile device while with a young child, the parent was less likely to talk with the child. 55 Parental engagement is critical in the development of children's emotional and social development, and these distractions may have short-and long-term negative effects.…”