Thinking inside the box: The future of young children's physical activity and the home environment.

Parrish et al.'s (2021) investigation of caregiver perceptions of preschoolers' physical activity (PA) within the home environment posits important opportunities for public policy to consider space and available opportunities for PA for preschoolers. This study uncovered qualitative themes on preschoolers' PA in the home, referencing the use of indoor and outdoor spaces, adaptations within the home, interplay between space and caregiving, and variability in child's PA. This work sparks a discussion into the current understanding of the home environment for preschooler PA and future research directions. We propose three main areas to bring forward physical activity and public health research, including 1) role of policies and community (e.g., societal norms) on the home environment and child physical activity, 2) reimagination of the home environment beyond the physical components as a complex system, and 3) advanced measurement of child physical activity using modern technology. Merging these new opportunities with past efforts may help design and facilitate healthier PA and movement patterns for preschoolers now and into the future.

Household chaos, family routines, and young child movement behaviors in the U.S. during the COVID-19 outbreak: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: The home environment is an important facilitator of young child movement behaviors, including physical activity (PA), sleep, and screen-time. Household chaos, characterized by crowding, noise, and disorder in the home, may hinder efforts to obtain adequate amounts of movement behaviors. The COVID-19 outbreak impacted many families, and social distancing during this time may create conditions for more household chaos. Family routines can help establish order in the home and encourage an appropriate balance of movement behaviors, such as less screen-time and more sleep. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between household chaos and young child movement behaviors during the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, and the role of family routines in this relationship. METHODS: A national online survey including 1836 mothers of preschoolers (3.0-5.9 years) was conducted during May 2020. Mothers reported demographic characteristics, household chaos, family routines, and the preschooler's movement behaviors during the outbreak. Mothers completed a household chaos questionnaire and were grouped into chaos categories (low, moderate/low, moderate/high, and high) for analysis. Linear regression was used to assess the association between chaos category, family routines, and movement behaviors with adjustment for covariates. RESULTS: Mothers were 35.9 ± 4.1 years of age, middle income (47.8%), and preschoolers were 3.8 ± 0.8 years of age. Most mothers reported their preschooler was less physically active (38.9%), slept the same amount of time (52.1%), and increased their screen-time (74.0%) after the COVID-19 outbreak. Preschoolers in the high chaos households performed less total PA (ß = - 0.36 days/week, 95% CI:-0.62 to - 0.09, p = 0.008), slept less (ß = - 0.42 h, 95% CI:-0.59 to - 0.25, p = 0.001) and had more screen-time (ß = 0.69 h, 95% CI:0.45 to 0.92, p = 0.001) compared to those in low chaos households. In most chaos categories, having a bed-time ritual was related to more child sleep, and mothers who viewed routines as "less/not important" reported more preschooler screen-time compared to mothers who viewed routines as "very important". CONCLUSION: Promoting bed-time rituals and prioritizing routines, even somewhat, may be related to an improved balance of child movement behaviors. Innovative measures are needed to support families during periods of disruption such as that experienced in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Household chaos, maternal stress, and maternal health behaviors in the United States during the COVID-19 outbreak.

OBJECTIVES: Household chaos, including disorder, noise, and crowding within the home, is a risk factor for poor mental and physical health. Household chaos may act upon maternal behaviors of physical activity and sleep, potentially via higher stress. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationships among household chaos, maternal stress, and maternal physical activity and sleep, and identify barriers to home organization during the COVID-19 outbreak. METHODS: A cross-sectional study using an online survey of 1721 mothers of preschoolers (ages = 3.0-5.9 years) in the United States was conducted in May 2020 during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and early reopening. Mothers reported demographic characteristics, household chaos, stress, physical activity and sleep, and barriers to home organization during the outbreak. Mediation models were conducted among household chaos, stress, and physical activity and sleep with adjustment for covariates. RESULTS: About half of mothers were middle income (48.2%), employed full-time prior to the outbreak (59.1%), and met the physical activity (47.7%), and sleep guideline (49.7%, 7-9 h/day). Household chaos and stress were both negatively related to physical activity and sleep. For every 1 unit increase in mother's current stress, mothers were 11% (95% confidence interval = 6% to 16%) less likely to meet the physical activity guideline and 19% (95% confidence interval = 14% to 23%) less likely to meet the sleep guideline. Household chaos was positively related to stress. Stress partially mediated the relationship between household chaos and physical activity and sleep. Virus concerns, occupational changes (i.e. teleworking), and lack of childcare were barriers to home organization. CONCLUSION: During the COVID-19 outbreak, many mothers had poor sleep and physical activity, which was associated with household chaos and stress. Opportunities to promote order at the individual, household, and community level may result in beneficial mental and physical health in mothers of young children during the COVID-19 outbreak and beyond.

Adolescents' sedentary time, affect, and contextual factors: An ecological momentary assessment study.

BACKGROUND: Few adolescents achieve sufficient levels of physical activity, and many are spending most of their time in sedentary behavior. Affective response following sedentary time may influence motivation to remain sedentary. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) is a real-time data capture methodology that can be used to identify factors influencing sedentary time, such as the context of the home setting, and resulting affective state within a free-living setting. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between context at home and adolescent sedentary time, and the relationship of sedentary time and subsequent affect. METHODS: Adolescents (n = 284; 10-16 y) participated in an EMA study that used random, interval-based sampling methods. Adolescents each received 22 unannounced surveys over 7-days through a smartphone application. One survey was randomly sent within each 2-h time-period. These time-periods occurred between 4:00 pm-8:00 pm on weekdays and 8:00 am-8:00 pm on the weekend. This 15-question survey included a series of questions on context (indoors/outdoors, alone/not alone) and positive affect. Adolescents concurrently wore an accelerometer at the hip, and the 30-min bout of accelerometry data prior to each survey was used in analyses. Mixed-effect location scale models were used to examine the association between context at home and sedentary time (stage 1) and the adjusted sedentary time and positive affect (stage 2), with each model adjusted for covariates. RESULTS: Adolescents were 12.6 ± 1.9 y of age on average, about half were White (58%), and engaged in high levels of sedentary behavior during the 30 min prior to the survey (21.4 ± 6.8 min). Most surveys occurred when adolescents were with others (59%) and indoors (88%). In Stage 1, both being alone and being indoors at home were positively associated with sedentary time (p <  0.001 for both). In Stage 2, adjusted sedentary time was not related to positive affect. Age was negatively related to positive affect (p <  0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Both contextual factors, being alone and indoors at home, were related to additional time spent sedentary compared to being with someone or outdoors. After adjustment, sedentary time was not related to subsequent positive affect, indicating other factors may be related to adolescent's positive affect in home settings.