Application of the Multi‐Process Action Control Framework to Understand Parental Support of Child and Youth Physical Activity, Sleep, and Screen Time Behaviours

Abstract

Background The purpose of this paper was to apply a framework designed to evaluate the intention–behaviour gap, known as multi‐process action control (M‐PAC), to understand parental support for the Canadian 24‐Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth. Method Parents (N = 1,208) of children 5–17 years of age, completed measures of reflective (attitudes, perceived control), regulatory (planning), and reflexive (identity, habit) processes as well as intention and support behaviours. Results Parents had significantly (p < .01) higher intentions in descending order to support sleep (86%), reduce screen time (62%), or support physical activity (65% to 61%). Translation of these intentions into behaviour was also significantly (p < .01) higher in a descending pattern for sleep support (80%), screen time reduction (68%), and physical activity support (56% to 31%). Congruent with M‐PAC, a discriminant function analysis of the results showed that the translation of parental support intentions into behaviour was associated with a combination of reflective, regulatory, and reflexive antecedents but these varied by the behaviours. Conclusion The majority of parents have positive intentions to support child and youth health behaviours, yet many fail to enact this support. Translation of intention into action was associated with attitudinal aspects, control over support, self‐regulation skills, and parental habits and identity.

Parents and children active together: a randomized trial protocol examining motivational, regulatory, and habitual intervention approaches

“…Namely, the effect of a habit formation (context-dependent repetition from prompts and cues, consistent practice) and planning and education condition (action planning, coping planning, and information on benefits), will be compared against a planning and education condition (action planning, coping planning and information on benefits) and a standard education condition (information on benefits) on child PA. Consistent with previous research [ 30 , 46 ], it is hypothesized that the habit formation intervention targeting parent-child co-activity will yield greater increases in co-activity and subsequently influence objectively measured child MVPA at 6 months (primary end-point) compared to those in the planning and education conditions. Further, based on extant research on the efficacy of planning interventions among families [ 34 ], we predict that children in the planning condition will show greater increases in MVPA compared to the education-only group because planning aids PA adoption, however these initially efficacious effects will wane over time due exhausting nature of constant volitional planning and the lack of strategies to assist with maintenance.…”

“…At all measurement occasions (baseline, 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months), parental co-activity habits for child PA will be measured with an adapted self-reported habit strength index [ 75 ] which includes the self-reported behavioral automaticity index subscale [ 76 ], both of which have demonstrated excellent reliability and validity in self-reported and objective PA assessment [ 77 ]. These measures have been used in prior research assessing habit of parental support within M-PAC [ 30 ]. Therefore, the scale follows the same form but was slightly modified for co-activity and thus the 12 items are as follows: “regular physical activity with my child is something I do... frequently, automatically, etc.” answered on a five-point Likert scale.…”

“…All of these instruments have previous application in various populations and have demonstrated previous strong predictive validity and internal consistency evidence scores among adults [ 95 – 97 ], and with parental physical activity support. Finally, the measures have shown some prior validity evidence for family-based physical activity as well as personal physical activity [ 30 , 73 ].…”

“…The reason for these negligible findings may be because the dominant approach is educating parents on the benefits of PA [ 13 ], which does not appear to be a driver for behaviour change, likely because the benefits of PA are already well-recognized among parents [ 14 , 26 – 29 ]. Furthermore, a recent study suggests that most parents have positive intentions to support child PA, yet few follow through on enacting this support [ 30 ]. Clearly, existing intervention targets for parental support have not been effective at bridging the intention-behaviour gap.…”

“…Extant research in the PA domain indicates interventions designed to promote habit strength through prompts, cues, context-dependent repetition and consistent practice may have promise in promoting PA [ 37 , 41 – 44 ], likely because habits contribute to PA maintenance somewhat separately from intention (or goals) [ 41 , 45 ]. Indeed, a recent study applying M-PAC to parental support for child PA found habit to be the largest independent correlate of behavioural follow-through [ 30 ], indicating that interventions that promote habit strength are warranted.…”