Abstract
Although there is increasing evidence regarding children's screen time, little is known about children's sitting. This study aimed to determine the correlates of screen time and sitting in 6- to 8-year-old children. In 2011-2012, parents in the Healthy Active Preschool and Primary Years (HAPPY) study (n = 498) reported their child's week/weekend day recreational screen time and potential correlates. ActivPALs™ measured children's nonschool sitting. In model 1, linear regression analyses were performed, stratified by sex and week/weekend day and controlling for age, clustered recruitment, and activPAL™ wear time (for sitting analyses). Correlates significantly associated with screen time or sitting (P < .05) were included in model 2. Children (age 7.6y) spent 99.6 and 119.3 minutes per day on week and weekend days engaging in screen time and sat for 119.3 and 374.6 minutes per day on week and weekend days, respectively. There were no common correlates for the 2 behaviors. Correlates largely differed by sex and week/weekend day. Modifiable correlates of screen time included television in the child's bedroom and parental logistic support for, encouragement of, and coparticipation in screen time. Modifiable correlates of sitting included encouragement of and coparticipation in physical activity and provision of toys/equipment for physical activity. Interventions may benefit from including a range of strategies to ensure that all identified correlates are targeted.
Highlights
There is increasing evidence regarding children’s screen time (ST), little is known about children’s sitting
Children had a mean age of 7.6 years and 57% were boys. On both week and weekend days, boys spent significantly more time engaged in screen time than girls (p
Future research should aim to include a broader range of correlates that are specific to sedentary behaviours beyond just screen time
Summary
There is increasing evidence regarding children’s screen time (ST), little is known about children’s sitting. There is increasing evidence that sedentary behaviour, sedentary screen time, is associated with detrimental health and developmental outcomes in children.[2, 3] As such, recommendations suggest that children’s (5-12 years) sedentary screen time should be limited to two hours per day,[4, 5] and that prolonged sitting should be minimised[5, 6] or broken up as often as possible.[4]. Youth (analysing results from 49 countries) found that, on average, 60-70% of children in developed countries exceed the recommended amount of sedentary screen time.[7] there has been some success with interventions to reduce children’s screen time,[8] few interventions have targeted children’s sitting, despite success in adult populations.[9,10,11] Understanding influences or correlates of sitting is important as these may differ from the factors that influence screen time, and alternative intervention strategies may be needed
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