Parental Self-Efficacy-A Predictor of Children's Health Behaviors? Its Impact on Children's Physical Activity and Screen Media Use and Potential Interaction Effect Within a Health Promotion Program.

Katrin Kieslinger,Susanne Kobel,Jürgen M Steinacker,Olga Pollatos,Olivia Wartha

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.712796

Katrin Kieslinger, Susanne Kobel + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.712796

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Abstract

Insufficient physical activity (PA) and increased screen media use (SMU) can have detrimental effects on children's health. Parental self-efficacy (PSE) can act as an important predictor for a healthy upbringing. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of PSE on children's PA and SMU. Additionally, a moderating effect of PSE on the intervention effect of the health promotion program “Join the Healthy Boat” was examined. Using a prospective randomized controlled trial, 558 kindergarten children (3.6 years [SD = 0.6]) were examined. Data was collected using parental self-report. A significant influence of PSE on children's PA (B = 0.33, p = 0.025) and children's SMU (B = 0.42, p = 0.006) was found. The moderating effect of PSE on the intervention effect was neither significantly related to children's PA (p = 0.360) nor to children's SMU (p = 0.531). This confirms the importance of PSE on children's health development. Despite the lack of a moderating effect, interventions should also promote healthy activity behaviors and self-efficacy for parents in order to engage children in a healthy lifestyle.

Highlights

High prevalence of overweight and obesity pose a worldwide health risk for children and adolescents and subsequently across their lifespan (Skinner et al, 2015; Abarca-Gómez et al, 2017; GBD 2015 Obesity Collaborators, 2017; Sagar and Gupta, 2018; Garrido-Miguel et al, 2019)
The here found significant influence of Parental self-efficacy (PSE) related to physical activity of kindergarten children is partly consistent with previous literature, which showed that toddlers of more selfefficacious parents moved significantly more in their daily lives
It is wellknown that boys are generally more physically active (Foweather et al, 2015; Nilsen et al, 2019), but these results suggest that parents, especially those with high PSE, have great potential to affect their girls’ physical activity behaviors

Summary

Introduction

High prevalence of overweight and obesity pose a worldwide health risk for children and adolescents and subsequently across their lifespan (Skinner et al, 2015; Abarca-Gómez et al, 2017; GBD 2015 Obesity Collaborators, 2017; Sagar and Gupta, 2018; Garrido-Miguel et al, 2019). In 1975, worldwide, five million girls and six million boys aged 5–18 were overweight (Abarca-Gómez et al, 2017). In 2016, 41 years later, more than 50 million girls and 74 million boys reached an overweight or obese status (Abarca-Gómez et al, 2017). A simulation showed that obesity in adulthood can be predicted by an early development of obesity (Ward et al, 2017) This highlights the importance of taking preventive measures against obesity, in early years, since childhood overweight and obesity increase the likelihood of developing other diseases such as diabetes, coronary heart disease or cancer in adulthood (Llewellyn et al, 2016)

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