Cross-Sectional Associations Between Wake-Time Movement Compositions and Mental Health in Preschool Children With and Without Motor Coordination Problems.

Denver M Y Brown,Sara King-Dowling,John Cairney,Matthew Y W Kwan

doi:10.3389/fped.2021.752333

Abstract

Movement behaviors have been found to be important correlates of health for children and may be particularly important for children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) who often experience greater mental health problems. To date, however, little research has investigated the daily movement composition of preschool children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) and/or its association with mental health. The purpose of the current study was to: (1) examine whether differences in movement compositions (i.e., sedentary time, light physical activity, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity) exist between typically developing (TD) preschool-age children and those at risk for DCD (rDCD); and (2) investigate associations between movement compositions and mental health indicators. This cross-sectional study used the baseline cohort data from the Coordination and Activity Tracking in CHildren (CATCH) study. A total of 589 preschool-age children (Mage = 4.94 ± 0.59 years; 57.4% boys) were included in this analysis, of which 288 scored at or below the 16th percentile on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 and were thus classified as rDCD. Wake time movement behaviors were measured using accelerometers and parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist to assess their child's mental health (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems). Compositional data analysis techniques were used. After adjusting for potential confounders, the results demonstrated similar movement compositions between TD and rDCD children. Among the full sample, findings revealed a significant association between sedentary time and externalizing problems, however, each of the other associations did not reach statistical significance. These results are consistent with emerging evidence demonstrating similar patterns of physical activity and sedentary time among TD children and those classified as rDCD during the preschool years. Although movement behaviors explained little variance in mental health during this period, future research should investigate when movement compositions diverge, and how these changes may impact the mental health of TD children and those classified as rDCD later in childhood.

Highlights

An abundant body of literature has demonstrated the positive impact of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) for fitness, motor and cognitive development as well as psychosocial, skeletal and cardiometabolic health in early childhood [1]
This study was the first to examine whether wake-time movement compositions differ between preschool children classified as typically developing (TD) and risk for DCD (rDCD), and represents the largest study to investigate the impact of wake-time movement behaviors on indicators of mental health among preschool children using accelerometry
Our results indicated that movement compositions were relatively similar for TD preschool-age children and those classified as rDCD; with both groups, on average, engaging in nearly 5 h of activity of varying intensities during a 12-h wake period

Summary

Introduction

An abundant body of literature has demonstrated the positive impact of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) for fitness, motor and cognitive development as well as psychosocial, skeletal and cardiometabolic health in early childhood [1]. Much of this work has failed to take into account that other movement behaviors—such as sleep, sedentary time and light physical activity (LPA)— play an important role [2] This constrained approach has sparked a push for the adoption and application of the 24-h movement paradigm to better understand how interrelationships among movement behaviors across the whole day affect healthy development during the early years [3, 4]. It is imperative that we improve our current understanding of the interactive nature of movement behaviors and their relationship with mental health so that we can design effective interventions moving forward Certain populations such as children with neurodevelopmental disorders experience a variety of barriers and limitations to daily activities that may cause them to engage in less active and more sedentary lifestyles than their typically developing (TD) peers [10, 11]. Studies taking a more comprehensive approach that moves beyond considering absolute amounts of time engaging in each behavior to instead focus on the relative proportion of time spent engaging in each behavior within a finite window have yet to be conducted

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