Within-subject associations of maternal physical activity parenting practices on children's objectively measured moderate-tovigorous physical activity

Abstract

Objective Longitudinal within-subject (WS) associations of mothers' momentary assessed physical activity (PA) parenting practices were examined with children's objectively measured PA during the same 2-hr time frame. Method Mother-child dyads (n = 189) completed five ecological momentary assessment (EMA) measurement bursts over 3 years. During each 7-day burst, mothers EMA-reported their past 2 hr PA parenting practices (i.e., encouraging their child to be physically active, taking their child someplace to be physically active), and children (Mage=9.6 years, SD = 0.9) wore an accelerometer to measure moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA). Two-part multilevel models were used, with zero portions representing not meeting MVPA and positive portions representing any MVPA, controlling for demographic covariates. Cross-level interaction terms of child sex and age with parenting were created to test moderation effects. Results When mothers reported taking their child to be physically active, children were more likely to get some MVPA (b = 0.56, p