Age-varying Bi-directional Associations Between Momentary Affect and Movement Behaviors in Children: Evidence From a Multi-wave Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

Association between parental stress, coping, mood, and subsequent child physical activity and screen-time: an ecological momentary assessment study

BACKGROUND

Few children meet physical activity and screen-time guidelines. Parents play a key role in supporting children's physical activity and limiting child screen-time, but their own stress, management of stress (i.e., coping), and mood may impact their ability to do so. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is a methodology that can be used to assess the temporality of parental state (i.e., stress, mood) and subsequent child behavior. This study aimed to examine the relationship between parental stress, coping, and mood with child physical activity and screen-time, and whether there were differences by child sex.

METHODS

Parents and their children (n = 436, 5-9 y) participated in an EMA study that used signal-contingent and end-of-day surveys. Parents received three signal-contingent surveys during fixed 3-hour windows and one end-of-day survey over 7-days via smartphone notifications. Parents reported their current stress, ability to manage stress, and depressive mood at the first signal-contingent survey. Parents also reported the frequency of their child's physical activity and screen-time across the day during the end-of-day survey. Conditional fixed effects regression was fitted to examine current and lagged day stress, coping, and mood relationships on change in child physical activity and screen-time.

RESULTS

Children were girls (53.7%), mainly non-white (64.3%), and with a household income of less than $50,000 USD (54.1%). Overall, parent's current day stress was negatively related to the frequency of child physical activity (p = 0.001), but not screen-time. Among girls, higher parent current-day stress and lower coping were related to less frequent girl's physical activity (ps < 0.05). Parent's lagged day stress was then associated with more frequent girl physical activity the next day (p = 0.018). There were no associations among parent mood or in models with only boys.

CONCLUSIONS

This study found parent's stress may negatively impact child's physical activity that day, but may positively impact physical activity the next day, namely girls. Findings suggest that reducing parental stress and improving coping abilities may improve girl's physical activity, but other approaches are needed to reduce child screen-time at this age.

Relationship between movement behaviours and life satisfaction in Chinese children: A cross-lagged panel analysis

Understanding the impacts of daily movement behaviours on the well-being of children is crucial for developing effective health promotion strategies. This study examined the relationship between movement behaviours and life satisfaction (LS) using longitudinal data from a sample of primary school students. This one-year follow-up study included 683 students (8.91 ± 1.31 years old) from Shanghai, China. Information on days of moderate- to vigorous-physical activity (MVPA), days of muscle-strengthening exercise (MSE), screen time (ST), and sleep duration was measured via a self-reported questionnaire. Cross-lagged models were used to assess the relationships between movement behaviours at baseline and LS at follow-up. Path analysis showed baseline sleep duration was a significant predictor of subsequent LS. Sex-specific models indicated baseline LS and sleep duration were predictors in males, and baseline MVPA, MSE, and sleep duration in females. Grade-specific models revealed positive relationships of baseline MSE and sleep duration with LS in Level 1 (grade 1 and 2), and baseline MVPA and MSE in Level 2 (grade 3 and 4). This study shows a complex interplay between 24-hour movement behaviours and LS among children. While baseline sleep duration emerged as a consistent predictor of LS at follow-up across the overall sample, the influence of MVPA, MSE, and ST varied by sex and grade level. These results highlight the importance of considering a range of lifestyle factors, including sleep and physical activity, in understanding and potentially enhancing life satisfaction in childhood.

Movement matters: short-term impacts of physical activity on mood and well-being

Few studies have investigated the short-term, momentary relationships between physical activity (PA) and well-being. This study focuses on investigating the dynamic relationships between PA and affective well-being among adults with type 1 diabetes. Participants (n = 122) wore an accelerometer and completed daily EMA surveys of current activities and affective states (e.g., happy, stressed, excited, anxious) via smartphone over 14 days. Within-person, increased sedentary time was associated with less positive affect (r =  - 0.11, p < 0.001), while more PA of any intensity was associated with greater positive affect and reduced fatigue, three hours later. Between-person, increased light PA was associated with increased stress (r = 0.21, p = 0.02) and diabetes distress (r = 0.30, p = 0.001). This study provides evidence that positive affect and fatigue are predicted by previous activity regardless of the different activities that people engaged in. Positive affect increased after engaging in PA. However, participants with higher amounts of light PA reported higher stress ratings.

Time-Varying Associations Between Device-Based and Ecological Momentary Assessment-Reported Sedentary Behaviors and the Concurrent Affective States Among Adolescents: Proof-of-Concept Study

BACKGROUND

Previous studies on affective state-sedentary behavior (SB) associations have not accounted for their potentially time-varying nature and have used inconsistent SB measurement modalities. We investigated whether the strength of the associations between affective states and SB varied as a function of the time of day and by SB measurement modality (device-measured SB vs ecological momentary assessment-reported screen-based SB) in youth.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to establish a proof of concept that SB-affective state associations may not be static during the day. In addition, we aimed to inform the methodology of future work, which may need to model associations as functions of the time of day and carefully consider how SB is operationalized or measured.

METHODS

A total of 15 adolescents (age: mean 13.07, SD 1.03 years; 10/15, 67% female; 6/15, 40% Hispanic; 10/15, 67% healthy weight) wore thigh-mounted activPAL accelerometers and simultaneously reported their screen-based SBs and concurrent positive and negative affective states via ecological momentary assessment for 7 to 14 days (N=636 occasions). Time-varying effect models (varying slopes) examined how each measure of SB was associated with concurrent affective states from 7 AM to 8 PM.

RESULTS

Time-varying effect model plots revealed that these associations varied in strength throughout the day. Specifically, device-based SB was related to greater concurrent negative affect only after approximately 5 PM and was unrelated to concurrent positive affect. Screen-based SB was related to greater concurrent negative affect only from 7 AM to approximately 9 AM. This was also related to greater concurrent positive affect from 7 AM to approximately 9:30 AM and from approximately 3 PM to approximately 7 PM.

CONCLUSIONS

We provide preliminary evidence to suggest that future confirmatory studies investigating the SB-affective state relationship should consider the time-varying nature of these associations and SB measurement modality. There may be critical time windows when specific types of SBs co-occur with affect, suggesting that interventions may need tailoring to the time of day and type of SB if future studies using similar methodologies can replicate our findings.

Child development in real time: The power of ambulatory assessment for investigating dynamic developmental processes and behavior longitudinally

Ambulatory assessment methods used to capture "real-world" microprocesses through self-report or passive data collection are used to assess child and adolescent behavior in context. This chapter begins by introducing the researcher to ambulatory assessment methods and describes these methods for use in child and adolescent developmental and behavioral research. Next, the importance of attention to timing is discussed. We then suggest appropriate analytic methods for putting ambulatory assessment data to best use to answer developmental research questions. We end with comments on the ethics of ambulatory assessment data and some concluding remarks for researchers wanting to use these methods in their own work.