Association Between Parenting Style And Adherence To The 24-hour Movement Guidelines In Adolescents

Abstract

Previous studies have examined the influence of parental style on children’s physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior, and sleep in isolation. It is largely unknown how parenting style affect these movement behaviors as a whole within a 24-hour period. PURPOSE: To examine the association between parenting style and adherence to the 24-hour movement guidelines among adolescents in Hong Kong. METHODS: 1,039 adolescents aged 11-18 years and their parents participated in this study. The adolescents wore an activPALTM for 7 consecutive days to measure moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), SB and sleep duration. Meeting the overall 24-hour movement guidelines was defined as: ≥ 60 minutes of MVPA, ≤ 2 hours of screen time (ST), and 8-10 hours of sleep a day. Parenting style was reported by the adolescents using the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ) which assessed three domains (authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive). Linear mixed models were performed to assess the association between parenting styles from both parents and the numbers of recommendations met by the adolescents, adjusting for educational attainment of parents, number of siblings, and school clustering effects. The models were performed for boys and girls separately. RESULTS: 278 adolescents (14.6 ± 1.6 years, 48% girls) provided valid activPALTM data and reported the perceived parental style pertaining to their mothers and fathers. Only 1.1 % of the adolescents met the overall 24-hour guidelines. The percentage of meeting the PA, ST and sleep duration recommendations was 9.4%, 27.3%, and 37.8%, respectively. Permissive parenting style of the mothers was associated with a higher number of recommendations met by their sons (b = 0.07, 95% CI = 0.01 to 0.14, p < 0.05). There was no relationship between fathers’ parental style and adherence to the guidelines for adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescent boys were more likely to adhere to the 24-hour movement guidelines when their mothers had a more permissive parenting style. This study was supported by the General Research Fund (GRF) of the Research Grants Council (RGC) of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (#14501415).