Associations among COVID-19 Family Stress, Family Functioning, and Child Health-Related Quality of Life through Lifestyle Behaviors in Children.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in lasting effects on children, necessitating a thorough understanding of its impact for effective recovery planning. This study investigated the associations among COVID-19 family stress, family functioning, children's lifestyle behaviors (i.e., healthy food intake, unhealthy food intake, physical activity, and screen time), and their health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Data from a 2022 survey of parents with children aged 5 to 12 (mean age of boys: 8.36, mean age of girls: 7.76) in the United States through the online Prolific platform were analyzed using path analysis and gender-based multi-group analysis. The results showed an inverse relationship between family stressors and functioning (ß = -0.39, p < 0.05). COVID-19 family stress was negatively related to child physical HRQOL (ß = -0.20, p < 0.05) but not psychosocial HRQOL. Family functioning showed a positive relation with child healthy food intake (ß = 0.26, p < 0.05) and a negative relation with unhealthy diet consumption (ß = -0.27, p < 0.05), while no significant associations were found with child physical activity and screen time. Family functioning was indirectly associated with both types of HRQOL through the child's eating patterns. These relationships were more pronounced for girls. The findings point to a complex interplay between family stress and functioning, dietary habits, and the HRQOL of children during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly concerning girls' food intake and well-being.

Associations of Broader Parental Factors with Children's Happiness and Weight Status through Child Food Intake, Physical Activity, and Screen Time: A Longitudinal Modeling Analysis of South Korean Families.

This study investigated how broader parental factors including parental happiness, parental play engagement, and parenting stress are related to Korean children's happiness and weight status across three years via indirect pathways through the children's energy-related behaviors of healthy and unhealthy food intake, physical activity, and screen time. Data from 1551 Korean parent pairs and 7-year-old children in the Panel Study on Korean Children were analyzed. A path analysis and gender-based multi-group analysis were conducted. Maternal happiness was negatively related to child screen time. Maternal play engagement showed positive concurrent associations with child healthy food intake and physical activity and negative associations with screen time. Maternal parenting stress was negatively related to child healthy eating. There was one significant finding related to fathers' role on children's energy-related behaviors, happiness, and weight status: the positive association between parental happiness and boys' unhealthy food intake. Child screen time was positively related to child weight status and negatively to child happiness at each age. Broader maternal parenting factors can serve as a protective factor for childhood happiness and weight status in 7-to-9-year-olds through being associated with a reduction in child screen time.

Associations of Parental General Monitoring with Adolescent Weight-Related Behaviors and Weight Status.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined how parental general monitoring (PGM), which refers to parental awareness of adolescents' activities in various domains, is associated with adolescents' weight status and related behaviors and whether these relationships differ among racial/ethnic groups. METHODS: Data are from 4,088 Black, Latino, and White youth assessed in seventh grade (mean age = 13.06). BMI percentile based on measured height and weight indicated weight status. PGM was assessed by adolescent report of parents' awareness of money spending, friends, and whereabouts. Adolescents reported both healthy and unhealthy dietary intake (DI), physical activity, and screen time over the past 7 days. Total sample and multigroup structural models were estimated. RESULTS: PGM was associated with lower weight status for the total sample, as well as being positively associated with healthy DI and physical activity and inversely associated with screen time across racial/ethnic groups. PGM was also inversely associated with unhealthy DI, except for in Black adolescents. There was an indirect effect from PGM to lower weight status via reduced screen time among Latino and White adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: Positive outcomes associated with PGM are extended to weight status and related behaviors. Efforts at improving weight status and related behaviors could benefit from addressing general parenting practices with their children.

Associations Between Parental SES and Children's Health-Related Quality of Life: The Role of Objective and Subjective Social Status.

Objective: We examined (1) the relationship that parental objective social status (OSS) and subjective social status (SSS) have with children's health-related quality of life (HRQOL), (2) whether SSS mediates the association between OSS and HRQOL, and (3) whether these associations differ among Black, Latino, and White children. Method: Data came from 4,824 Black, Latino, and White 5th graders in the Healthy PassagesTM study. OSS was measured as parent educational attainment and net equivalent household income. SSS was measured by parent rating of community and national standing on the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status. Child HRQOL was measured with child report on the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) physical and psychosocial scales. Structural equation modeling path analysis was conducted using Mplus version 7.4. Results: The data supported the hypothesized measurement and structural models. Whereas parental OSS was positively related to psychosocial HRQOL for all three racial/ethnic groups and to physical HRQOL for Latino children, parental SSS was not related to either for any of the racial/ethnic groups. Therefore, mediation by SSS was not supported for any group. Conclusion: OSS was confirmed to have stronger association with children's HRQOL than parental SSS. This is in contrast to some research on adults, raising the questions of how best to assess SSS relevant to children and at what point in development SSS may influence children's health and well-being. The persistent relationship found between parental OSS and child health suggests that efforts to improve low socioeconomic resources in families may contribute to improve children's health.