Identifying Risk Profiles for Nonadherence to the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth 6 Months Into the COVID-19 Pandemic.

PURPOSE: The purposes of the current study were to identify risk profiles for nonadherence among children and youth (5-17 y) at the 6-month mark of the COVID-19 pandemic and to discuss similarities and differences between risk profiles identified in the current study and those identified at the 1-month mark of the pandemic. METHODS: Data were part of a nationally representative sample of 1143 parents (Mage = 43.07 y, SD = 8.16) of children and youth (5-17 y) living in Canada. Survey data were collected in October 2020. RESULTS: Results showed that 3.8% met all movement behavior recommendations, 16.2% met the physical activity recommendation, 27% met the screen time recommendation, and 63.8% met the sleep recommendation. Characteristics associated with nonadherence to all movement behaviors included low parental perceived capability to restrict screen time and decreased overall time spent outdoors. Characteristics associated with nonadherence to the physical activity and screen time recommendations included youth (12-17 y), low parental perceived capability to restrict screen time, decreased time spent outdoors, and increased screen time. CONCLUSION: Results emphasized the importance of parental perceived capability to restrict screen time and children's and youth's outdoor time and showed that pandemic-related factors have impacted children and youth differently.

Parental psychological problems were associated with higher screen time and the use of mature-rated media in children.

AIM: Parents' psychological problems may affect children's screen time, but research has been scarce. We examined the association between parental psychological problems and children's screen media behaviours in a nationally representative sample. METHODS: The participants were from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, recruited by probability sampling from the USA population. Children reported their use of TV, videos, video games, social media and mature-rated media. The parents (85% mothers) reported psychological problems using the Adult Self-Report questionnaire. RESULTS: In 10,650 children (5112 girls, 5538 boys) aged 9.9 ± 0.6 years, the presence of parental psychological problems was associated with children spending more daily time on screen media and with meeting the recommendation of ≤2 daily hours less often than children whose parents did not have psychological problems. Parental psychological problems were associated with children's TV watching, video watching and gaming but not with using social media. Parental internalising problems were associated with children watching mature-rated movies (odds ratio [OR] = 1.14, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.00, 1.30) and playing mature-rated games (OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.11, 1.45). CONCLUSION: Presence of parental psychological problems is associated with higher screen time and use of mature-rated media in children. This cross-sectional study was not able to examine causal associations.

Profiles of mental health and their association with negative impacts and suicidal ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A Canadian perspective.

Background: Mental health among Canadians has worsened since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to identify profiles of mental health difficulties and to quantify the relationships between mental health profiles, negative impacts related to the pandemic and suicidal ideation. Data and methods: Participants were 22,721 adults (18 years and older) from the 2020 and 2021 Survey on COVID-19 and Mental Health. Latent profile analysis was used to identify patterns of anxiety, depression and psychological distress. The relationships between mental health profiles, negative impacts and suicidal ideation were examined using logistic regression models. Results: Three mental health profiles were identified. Individuals were classified as having no mental health difficulties (Profile 1, 65.70%), low-to-moderate mental health difficulties (Profile 2, 25.52%) and severe mental health difficulties (Profile 3, 8.78%). Individuals in Profiles 2 and 3 were at greater odds than individuals in Profile 1 of experiencing emotional distress; the death of a family member, friend or colleague; difficulty in meeting financial obligations or essential needs; the loss of a job or income; feelings of loneliness or isolation; physical health problems; challenges in personal relationships with household members; and other impacts. Individuals in Profile 2 (4.27%, odds ratio (OR) = 24.30) and Profile 3 (19.09%, odds ratio (OR) = 115.75) were considerably more likely to have contemplated suicide since the onset of the pandemic compared with those in Profile 1 (0.16%). Interpretation: Individuals who experienced high levels of anxiety, depression and psychological distress were most vulnerable to negative impacts related to the pandemic and suicidal ideation.

Development of a consensus statement on the role of the family in the physical activity, sedentary, and sleep behaviours of children and youth.

BACKGROUND: Children and youth who meet the physical activity, sedentary, and sleep behaviour recommendations in the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines are more likely to have desirable physical and psychosocial health outcomes. Yet, few children and youth actually meet the recommendations. The family is a key source of influence that can affect lifestyle behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to describe the process used to develop the Consensus Statement on the Role of the Family in the Physical Activity, Sedentary, and Sleep Behaviours of Children and Youth (0-17 years) and present, explain, substantiate, and discuss the final Consensus Statement. METHODS: The development of the Consensus Statement included the establishment of a multidisciplinary Expert Panel, completion of six reviews (three literature, two scoping, one systematic review of reviews), custom data analyses of Statistics Canada's Canadian Health Measures Survey, integration of related research identified by Expert Panel members, a stakeholder consultation, establishment of consensus, and the development of a media, public relations, communications and launch plan. RESULTS: Evidence from the literature reviews provided substantial support for the importance of family on children's movement behaviours and highlighted the importance of inclusion of the entire family system as a source of influence and promotion of healthy child and youth movement behaviours. The Expert Panel incorporated the collective evidence from all reviews, the custom analyses, other related research identified, and stakeholder survey feedback, to develop a conceptual model and arrive at the Consensus Statement: Families can support children and youth in achieving healthy physical activity, sedentary and sleep behaviours by encouraging, facilitating, modelling, setting expectations and engaging in healthy movement behaviours with them. Other sources of influence are important (e.g., child care, school, health care, community, governments) and can support families in this pursuit. CONCLUSION: Family is important for the support and promotion of healthy movement behaviours of children and youth. This Consensus Statement serves as a comprehensive, credible, and current synopsis of related evidence, recommendations, and resources for multiple stakeholders.

Evaluating the psychometric properties of the parent-rated Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in a nationally representative sample of Canadian children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years.

BACKGROUND: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a brief measure of children's and adolescents' mental health. There are different versions of the questionnaire: a version for children and adolescents to complete by self-reporting, a version for parents and guardians to complete ("parent-rated"), and a version for teachers to complete. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the parent-rated SDQ with a nationally representative sample of Canadian children and adolescents. DATA AND METHODS: Data are from cycle 1 (2007 to 2009), cycle 2 (2009 to 2011), cycle 3 (2012 to 2013) and cycle 4 (2014 to 2015) of the Canadian Health Measures Survey. Data include 7,451 Canadian children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years (49.3% female). Parents and guardians completed the SDQ by reflecting on their child's behaviour over the past six months. Factorial validity was examined via confirmatory factor analysis, which included testing the original five-factor SDQ model and alternative three-factor and higher-order models. Reliability was assessed through composite reliability scores. Measurement invariance across subgroups was also assessed. RESULTS: The original five-factor (i.e., emotional symptoms, conduct problems, peer problems, hyperactivity and prosocial behaviour) SDQ fit the data satisfactorily, demonstrated evidence of reliability, and was invariant across sex (male vs. female), age (children vs. adolescents) and survey language (English vs. French). The higher-order solution fit the data acceptably, and the three-factor solution did not fit the data well. DISCUSSION: The original five-factor, parent-rated SDQ demonstrates evidence of factorial validity and reliability as a population measure of mental health difficulties among Canadian children and adolescents.

Screen time and problem behaviors in children: exploring the mediating role of sleep duration.

BACKGROUND: Previous research examining the relationship between screen time (ST) and psychological health outcomes have primarily focused on one type of ST (i.e., television), while little research has considered other types of screens (e.g., videos, movies, social media), screen content (e.g., violent video games), or potential mediating variables. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to assess ST types and content and their association with problem behaviors, and to determine whether these relationships were mediated by sleep duration. METHODS: Parents and children provided cross-sectional baseline data (2016-18) as part of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, a broadly US representative sample of 11,875 children aged 9 to 10 years. Parents self-reported their children's emotional and behavioral syndromes via the Child Behavior Checklist and sleep duration using one item from the Parent Sleep Disturbance Scale. Children self-reported their ST behavior, which comprised ST types (television/movies, videos, video games, and social media) and content (mature-rated video games and R-rated movies). RESULTS: Time spent in various ST types was positively associated with problem behaviors: watching television/movies was associated with a 5.9% increase in rule-breaking behavior (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 1.059), 5% increase in social problems (IRR = 1.050), 4% increase in aggressive behavior (IRR = 1.040), and 3.7% increase in thought problems (IRR = 1.037). Greater time spent playing mature-rated video games was associated with greater somatic complaints (IRR = 1.041), aggressive behavior (IRR = 1.039), and reduced sleep duration (IRR = .938). Sleep duration mediated the relationship between ST (type and content) and problem behaviors, albeit the effect sizes were small. The largest effects were observed between sleep duration and all problem behaviors, with greater sleep duration predicting an 8.8-16.6% decrease in problem behaviors (IRRs ranging from .834 to .905). CONCLUSION: Greater time spent in ST behavior was associated with greater problem behaviors among children. There was strong evidence that longer sleep duration was associated with reduced problem behaviors. While sleep duration mediated the effects of ST on problem behaviors, other potential mediating variables need to be investigated in future research.

Associations between organized sport participation and mental health difficulties: Data from over 11,000 US children and adolescents.

The purpose of this study was to explore the association between participation in organized sport and a broad array of mental health difficulties among US children and adolescents. The data (cross-sectional) were from Data Release 3.0 (one-year follow-up visits on the full cohort) of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study-a broadly representative sample of 11,235 US children and adolescents aged 9 to 13 years. Parents/guardians provided self-reports of their child's mental health difficulties using the Child Behavior Checklist. To assess participation in organized sport, children and adolescents were categorized into one of four groups: 1) participation in team sport, 2) participation in individual sport, 3) participation in team and individual sport, and 4) non-sport participation. Participation in team sport compared to non-sport participation was associated with 10% lower anxious/depressed scores, 19% lower withdrawn/depressed scores, 17% lower social problems scores, 17% lower thought problems scores, and 12% lower attention problems scores. Participation in team sport compared to non-sport participation was also associated with 20% lower rule-breaking behavior scores for females (compared to males). Conversely, participation in individual sport compared to non-sport participation was associated with 16% higher anxious/depressed scores, 14% higher withdrawn/depressed scores, 12% higher social problems scores, and 14% higher attention problems scores. Participation in both team and individual sport compared to non-sport participation was associated with 17% lower rule-breaking behavior scores for females (compared to males). Results indicate that team sport participation was associated with fewer mental health difficulties, whereas individual sport participation was associated with greater mental health difficulties. The findings complement previous research suggesting that team sport participation may be a vehicle to support child and adolescent mental health. Additional research is needed to determine to what extent, and under what circumstances, participation in individual sport may be problematic for younger cohorts.

An R Package for Computing Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy (CAPL) scores and interpretations from raw data.

The Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy (CAPL) is the first comprehensive protocol designed to assess a child's level of physical literacy. Current approaches to analyzing CAPL-2 raw data are tedious, inefficient, and/or can lead to computation errors. In this paper we introduce the capl R package (open source), designed to compute and visualize CAPL-2 scores and interpretations from raw data. The capl package takes advantage of the R environment to provide users with a fast, efficient, and reliable approach to analyzing their CAPL-2 raw data and a "quiet" user experience, whereby "noisy" error messages are suppressed via validation. We begin by discussing several preparatory steps that are required prior to using the capl package. These steps include preparing, formatting, and importing CAPL-2 raw data. We then use demo data to show that computing the CAPL-2 scores and interpretations is as simple as executing one line of code. This one line of code uses the main function in the capl package (get_capl()) to compute 40 variables within a matter of seconds. Next, we showcase the helper functions that are called within the main function to compute individual variables and scores for each test element within the four domains as well as an overall physical literacy score. Finally, we show how to visualize CAPL-2 results using the ggplot2 R package.

Typologies of Family Functioning and 24-h Movement Behaviors.

Research on the importance of the family environment on children's health behaviors is ubiquitous, yet critical gaps in the literature exist. Many studies have focused on one family characteristic and have relied on variable-centered approaches as opposed to person-centered approaches (e.g., latent profile analysis). The purpose of the current study was to use latent profile analysis to identify family typologies characterized by parental acceptance, parental monitoring, and family conflict, and to examine whether such typologies are associated with the number of movement behavior recommendations (i.e., physical activity, screen time, and sleep) met by children. Data for this cross-sectional observational study were part of the baseline data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Data were collected across 21 study sites in the United States. Participants included 10,712 children (female = 5143, males = 5578) aged 9 and 10 years (M = 9.91, SD = 0.62). Results showed that children were meaningfully classified into one of five family typologies. Children from families with high acceptance, medium monitoring, and medium conflict (P2; OR = 0.54; 95% CI, 0.39-0.76); high acceptance, medium monitoring, and high conflict (P3; OR = 0.28; 95% CI, 0.20, 0.40); low acceptance, low monitoring, and medium conflict (P4; OR = 0.24; 95% CI, 0.16, 0.36); and medium acceptance, low monitoring, and high conflict (P5; OR = 0.19; 95% CI, 0.12-0.29) were less likely to meet all three movement behavior recommendations compared to children from families with high acceptance, high monitoring, and low conflict (P1). These findings highlight the importance of the family environment for promoting healthy movement behaviors among children.

Home Team (Dis)Advantage Patterns in the National Hockey League: Changes Through Increased Emphasis on Individual Performance With the 3-on-3 Overtime Rule.

Past research examining National Hockey League (professional ice hockey; NHL) data from the 4-on-4 overtime era (seasons between 2005-06 and 2013-14) revealed an inconsistent home team (dis)advantage pattern such that home teams that were superior to their visiting counterparts had slightly greater odds of winning during regulation play compared to overtime (demonstrating home crowd advantages for team performance during regulation); in contrast, home teams experienced lower odds of winning in the shootout period than in overtime regardless of team quality (thereby demonstrating risks for individual choking from home crowd pressures). In this study, we explored the NHL home (dis)advantage pattern during four more recent seasons (2015-16 through 2018-19) in which the league instituted 3-on-3 play during overtime (perhaps increasing individual pressure for athletes competing in the 3-on-3 overtime period). We used archival data from the regular season (N=5,002 games) to compare home teams' odds of winning in regulation (with 5-on-5 skaters per team) to overtime (with 3-on-3) and in the shootout, adjusting for the quality of home and visiting teams. We conducted fixed-effects and multi-level logistic regression modeling. Evenly matched home teams were 1.66 times more likely to win than inferior home teams when games concluded in regulation versus overtime. Superior home teams were 4.24 times more likely to win than inferior home teams when games concluded in regulation rather than overtime. Thus, it is apparently more difficult for superior and evenly matched home teams to win in overtime than during regulation, suggesting that such home teams may be susceptible to choking in overtime. In contrast to the earlier 4-on-4 overtime era, home teams did not have lower odds of winning in the shootout compared to overtime. These results may have implications for NHL coaches' and players' tactical decision-making.

Few Canadian children and youth were meeting the 24-hour movement behaviour guidelines 6-months into the COVID-19 pandemic: Follow-up from a national study.

Daily life has changed for families due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this repeated cross-sectional study was to describe movement behaviours in Canadian children and youth 6 months into the pandemic (T2; October 2020) compared with the start of the pandemic (T1, April 2020). An online survey was distributed to parents (N = 1568) of children and/or youth (5-17 years; 58% girls) in October 2020. The survey assessed changes in movement behaviours (physical activity and play, sedentary behaviours, and sleep) from before the pandemic to October 2020 (T2). We compared these data with spring data (T1; April 2020; Moore et al. 2020; Int. J. Behav. Nutr. Phys. Act, 17:85) collected using identical methodology (N = 1472; 54% girls). We report correlations between movement behaviours and relevant parental factors and provide word frequency distributions for open-ended responses. During the second wave, 4.5% of children (4.6% girls; 4.3% boys) and 1.9% of youth (1.3% girls, 2.4% boys) met the movement guidelines (3.1% overall). Whereas, during the first wave, 4.8% (2.8% girls, 6.5% boys) of children and 0.6% (0.8% girls, 0.5% boys) of youth were meeting combined guidelines (2.6% overall). Parental support was correlated with their child's movement behaviours (T1 and T2). Our study demonstrates the ongoing challenges for children and youth to engage in healthy movement during the pandemic. Novelty: Our large-scale national study demonstrates that children and youth were not meeting the 24-hour movement guidelines during the second wave of the pandemic. Our findings illustrate the need to protect children and youth from the collateral consequences of the pandemic.

Canadian children's and youth's adherence to the 24-h movement guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic: A decision tree analysis.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to use decision tree modeling to generate profiles of children and youth who were more or less likely to meet the Canadian 24-h movement guidelines during the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) outbreak. METHODS: Data for this study were from a nationally representative sample of 1472 Canadian parents (Meanage = 45.12, SD = 7.55) of children (5-11 years old) or youth (12-17 years old). Data were collected in April 2020 via an online survey. Survey items assessed demographic, behavioral, social, micro-environmental, and macro-environmental characteristics. Four decision trees of adherence and non-adherence to all movement recommendations combined and each individual movement recommendation (physical activity [PA], screen time, and sleep) were generated. RESULTS: Results revealed specific combinations of adherence and non-adherence characteristics. Characteristics associated with adherence to the recommendation(s) included high parental perceived capability to restrict screen time, annual household income of ≥ $100,000, increases in children's and youth's outdoor PA/sport since the COVID-19 outbreak began, being a boy, having parents younger than 43 years old, and small increases in children's and youth's sleep duration since the COVID-19 outbreak began. Characteristics associated with non-adherence to the recommendation(s) included low parental perceived capability to restrict screen time, youth aged 12-17 years, decreases in children's and youth's outdoor PA/sport since the COVID-19 outbreak began, primary residences located in all provinces except Quebec, low parental perceived capability to support children's and youth's sleep and PA, and annual household income of ≤ $99,999. CONCLUSION: Our results show that specific characteristics interact to contribute to (non)adherence to the movement behavior recommendations. Results highlight the importance of targeting parents' perceived capability for the promotion of children's and youth's movement behaviors during challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic, paying particular attention to enhancing parental perceived capability to restrict screen time.

24-Hour Movement Behaviors and Impulsivity.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to examine individual and concurrent associations between meeting the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth (9-11 hours of sleep per night, ≤2 hours of recreational screen time (ST) per day, and at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day) and dimensions of impulsivity. METHODS: Data from this cross-sectional observational study were part of the first annual curated release of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. Participants included 4524 children between the ages of 8 and 11 years. RESULTS: In analyses, it was shown that adherence to individual movement behavior recommendations as well as combinations of adherence to movement behavior recommendations were associated with each dimension of impulsivity. Meeting all 3 movement behavior recommendations was associated with lower positive urgency (95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.12 to -0.05), negative urgency (95% CI: -0.04 to -0.08), Behavioral Inhibition System (95% CI: -0.08 to -0.01), greater perseverance (95% CI: 0.09 to 0.15), and better scores on delay-discounting (95% CI: 0.57 to 0.94). Meeting the ST and sleep recommendations was associated with less impulsive behaviors on all dimensions of impulsivity: negative urgency (95% CI: -0.20 to -0.10), positive urgency (95% CI: -0.16 to -0.08), perseverance (95% CI: 0.06 to 0.15), Behavioral Inhibition System (95% CI: -0.15 to -0.03), Behavioral Activation System (BAS) reward responsiveness (95% CI: -0.04 to -0.05), BAS drive (95% CI: -0.14 to -0.06), BAS fun-seeking (95% CI: -0.15 to -0.17), and delay-discounting task (95% CI: 0.68 to 0.97). CONCLUSIONS: Findings support efforts to determine if limiting recreational ST while promoting adequate sleep enhances the treatment and prevention of impulsivity-related disorders.

Do exerciser weight status and perceived motivation predict instructors' motivation and beliefs about the exerciser? A test of motivation contagion effects.

We examined how fitness professionals' perceptions of a hypothetical exerciser's motivation and weight status impacted the professionals' motivation to instruct, perceived effectiveness of different interpersonal behaviors toward the exerciser, and beliefs about the exerciser's efficacy to overcome barriers to exercise. Results of a 2 (autonomous vs. controlled exerciser motivation) x 2 (normal weight vs. overweight exerciser) between-subjects experimental design showed that fitness professionals (N = 134) were more autonomously motivated to instruct, perceived autonomy-supportive behaviors as more effective, and had stronger beliefs regarding the exerciser's efficacy when the exerciser was portrayed as having autonomous motivation, compared to controlled motivation. Fitness professionals reported higher levels of controlled motivation to instruct and perceived controlling behaviors as more effective when presented with the overweight exerciser, compared to the normal weight exerciser. Our findings suggest that perceptions of exercisers' motivation and body weight can influence fitness professionals' interactions with and beliefs about their clients.

Children's Experiences Wearing Pedometers in a Telephone-Delivered Imagery Intervention Aimed at Increasing Active Play.

PURPOSE: Much of what we know about pedometer interventions and imagery interventions with children is grounded in quantitative data. The general purpose of the present study was to qualitatively explore the experiences of children who had participated in a 4-week imagery intervention designed to increase active play. Specifically, the current study investigated children's experiences with (a) wearing pedometers and (b) listening to audio recordings (imagery scripts and short stories) via an automated telephone system. METHOD: Two focus-group interviews were conducted with a subsample of children (aged 9-10 years) who had completed the imagery intervention: 1 interview with children from the imagery group (n = 7) and 1 with children from the control group (n = 5). RESULTS: Findings indicated that children enjoyed wearing pedometers. At the same time, children reported some complaints about wearing these devices (e.g., they are uncomfortable). Children also described that the automated telephone system was fun to use, despite the fact that it was difficult to remember to call the system 3 times each week. Finally, children in the imagery group noted that the imagery scripts were easy to imagine and motivated them to engage in active play, while children in the control group found the short stories interesting. CONCLUSION: The results of the current study can help researchers and practitioners develop and implement effective pedometer and imagery interventions with children.