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Document Type

Article

Keywords

adolescent, child, exercise, parents, screens, sleep

Publication Date

2-25-2025

Abstract

This study aimed to examine how perceived parental mental and physical health status was associated with child physical activity, screen time, and sleep. Participants were 6- to 17-year-old minors (N = 20,156; 47.9% female) from the 2022 US National Survey of Children’s Health. Dependent variables were children’s physical activity frequency, screen time, and sleep. Independent variables were parents’ physical and mental health status. Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model, two adjusted path models were constructed. One for parent mental health associating with parental physical health, another for parent physical health associating with parental mental health–both further associating with child movement behaviors. Path models also examined the covariance within parental dyads. Approximately 20.1% of children adhered to physical activity recommendations, 61.2% to screentime recommendations, and 66.4% to sleep recommendations. Parental physical health status mediated the association of parents' mental health status on child movement behaviors, and vice-versa. Mediated associations represented 20.1% to 50.5% of the total associations. Dyadic correlations were moderate (r = 0.52 – 0.60). Most of the dyadic correlations and covariance were explained by actor-driven effects, suggesting that the mediated parental association with child behaviors may be due to health perceptions related to the individual parent and not the other parent.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.18122/ijpah.4.1.3.boisestate

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