Early Childhood Screen Time and Parental Attitudes Toward Child Television Viewing in a Low-Income Latino Population Attending the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children

Abstract

Background: Early childhood media exposure is associated with obesity and multiple adverse health conditions. The aims of this study were to assess parental attitudes toward childhood television (TV) viewing in a low-income population and examine the extent to which child BMI, child/parent demographics, and household media environment are associated with adherence to American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines for screen time.Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey study of 314 parents of children ages 0-5 years surveyed in English or Spanish by selfadministered questionnaire at a Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) clinic in Oregon.Results: In this majority Latino sample (73%), half (53%) of the children met AAP guidelines on screen time limits, 56% met AAP guidelines for no TV in the child's bedroom, and 29% met both. Children were more likely to meet AAP guidelines when there were <2 TVs in the home, there was no TV during dinner, or their parents spent less time viewing electronic media. Parents who spent less time viewing electronic media were more likely to report believing that TV provides little value or usefulness.Conclusions: In this low-income, predominantly Latino population attending WIC, parent media-viewing and household media environment are strongly associated with child screen time. Programs aimed at reducing child screen time may benefit from interventions that address parental viewing habits.

A qualitative study conducted in the USA exploring Latino fathers’ beliefs, attitudes and practices related to their young children’s eating, physical activity and sedentary behaviours

“…These findings are important given evidence of the influence of paternal parenting styles and practices on children's PA and screenviewing behaviours (64)(65)(66)(67) . Previous research suggests that parental attitudes towards and use of screen time, including parents' own screen-viewing habits, using screen viewing as a form of childcare (or babysitter), viewing screen time as a source of education and as a means of child relaxation, result in permissive styles towards their children's screen viewing (64)(65)(66)(67)(68)(69)(70)(71)(72)(73)(74)(75)(76) . Furthermore, our findings indicate that Latino fathers' ability to model healthy PA behaviours for their children may be limited by their lack of self-efficacy to participate in these behaviours themselves and indicate that interventions should focus not only on fathers' styles and practices, but also on helping fathers increase their self-efficacy for these behaviours.…”

A review of early influences on physical activity and sedentary behaviors of preschool‐age children in high‐income countries

“…Despite well-documented benefits of PA for children, activity levels of children across the globe have declined over the past decades, and most preschool-age children are not accruing the recommended levels of MVPA daily (Montgomery et al, 2004;Pate et al, 2015). Moreover, an increasing number of studies document excessive screen-viewing time including television, computers, smartphones, and so on among preschool-age children (Asplund et al, 2015;Beets et al, 2011;Davison et al, 2011;Ekelund, Brage, & Wareham, 2004;Garriguet et al, 2016;Lampard, Jurkowski, & Davison, 2013;Mendoza, Zimmerman, & Christakis, 2007;Pate et al, 2015;Vale, Santos, Soares-Miranda, Silva, & Mota, 2010;Vandewater, Bickham, & Lee, 2006).…”

“If You Let Them, They Will Be on It 24 Hours a Day”: Qualitative Study Conducted in the United States Exploring Brazilian Immigrant Mothers’ Beliefs, Attitudes, and Practices Related to Screen Time Behaviors of Their Preschool-Age Children (Preprint)

“…To date there is a paucity of information available on how minority and immigrant parents perceive and manage their preschool-age children's ST [8,26,27,28,31]. In addition, to our knowledge, no studies have focused on ST of preschool-age children of Brazilian immigrant families living in the US.…”

“…[4]. A growing number of studies have documented excessive ST (> 2 hours/day) among preschool-age children (age 2-5) [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

“…Recently, studies have begun to document parental perceptions of young children's ST and parental ST practices [33][34][35][36]. However, research examining parenting and early childhood ST among low-income, minority and immigrant parents is still limited [8,18,[26][27][28]. This information is needed to develop and refine interventions tailored to meet the needs of these population groups that are at increased risk of obesity and related chronic diseases [6,13,16,20].…”