(PTFS04-04-24) Longitudinal Associations Between Parental Screen Time Monitoring, Child Screen Time Exposure, Diet, and Body Mass Index

Objectives: This study has two objectives: 1) to examine the longitudinal associations between parental screen monitoring and screen media exposure in children ages 4 through 6 years and 2) to test diet as a mediator between children’s screen media exposure and body mass index (BMI).

Methods: This analysis uses three waves of data (n= 115 at baseline) from a cohort study following children from 4 months to 6 years. Parents were asked to fill out repeated questionnaires including measures about family screen time habits (i.e., levels of parental screen time monitoring and child screen time exposure) and child diet via a food frequency questionnaire. A diet score was created by averaging items high in dietary fat, sugar, and energy. Child BMI was calculated from measured weight/height and medical records. Two sets of structural models were fit: the overall and change effects model and the cross-lagged panel model. Both models used full information maximum likelihood and were conducted with and without sociodemographic covariates.

Results: For Objective 1, the overall and change effects model supported the hypothesis that increases in overall levels of parental screen monitoring predicted decreases in overall levels of screen exposure across years 4 to 5 (β = -0.603) and 5 to 6 (β = -0.521). The cross-lagged panel model supported greater parental monitoring predicting lower screen exposure from years 4 to 5 (β = -0.257) but not from 5 to 6. For Objective 2, the overall and change effects model supported paths from screen exposure to unhealthy diet in years 4 to 5 (β = 0.341) and 5 to 6 (β = 0.234), but paths were not statistically significant between diet and BMI. Similarly, no paths in the cross-lagged panel model between screen exposure, diet, and BMI were statistically significant.

Conclusions: Longitudinal findings support screen monitoring may be one strategy for parents to decrease children’s amount of screen exposure. Children with higher overall levels of screen time may have unhealthier diets. The lack of statistical findings from an unhealthy diet to BMI may reflect the idea that changes in child weight trajectories may require intervention as opposed to typical fluctuations in the home environment.

Funding Sources: This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.