Associations of Parental Influences with Physical Activity and Screen Time among Young Children: A Systematic Review

Parents play a critical role in developing and shaping their children’s physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviours, particularly in the early years of life. The aim of this systematic review is to identify current literature investigating associations of parental influences with both PA and screen time in young children. This systematic review was conducted in November 2013 using 6 electronic databases covering research literature from January 1998 to November 2013. Thirty articles that met inclusion criteria were identified. These studies covered five important aspects of parenting: (1) parenting practices; (2) parents’ role modelling; (3) parental perceptions of children’s PA and screen viewing behaviours; (4) parental self-efficacy; and (5) general parenting style. Findings suggest that parents’ encouragement and support can increase children’s PA, and reducing parents’ own screen time can lead to decreased child screen time. Improving parenting practices, parental self-efficacy or changing parenting style may also be promising approaches to increasing PA time and decreasing screen time of young children

The relationship between work–family conflict and job satisfaction for preschool teachers in rural China: a moderated mediation model

BackgroundJob satisfaction for preschool teachers in rural areas has an important impact on their professional development, physical and mental health, and the development of preschool education. However, few studies have explored the factors that influence rural preschool teachers’ job satisfaction.PurposeThis study aims to examine the influence of rural preschool teachers’ work–family conflict on their job satisfaction, and the mediating effect of occupational identity, the moderating effect of social support.MethodParticipants included 3,065 rural preschool teachers from Zhejiang Province in mainland China. Teachers completed questionnaires on work–family conflict, occupational identity, job satisfaction, and social support. The correlation and moderated mediation analyses were conducted using SPSS PROCESS.Results(1) work–family conflict is associated with poorer job satisfaction in preschool teachers; (2) occupational identity mediates the relationship between work–family conflict and job satisfaction; and (3) a high level of social support alleviates the negative influence of work–family conflict on job satisfaction and promotes the positive effect of occupational identity on job satisfaction.ConclusionThe study revealed the negative impact of work–family conflict on preschool teachers’ job satisfaction, and the protecting effect of social support, which has important implications for improving teachers’ future job satisfaction

Consumer Engagement in Mobile Application (App) Interventions Focused on Supporting Infant Feeding Practices for Early Prevention of Childhood Obesity

Background and Aims: There has been increasing interest in using mobile applications (“apps”) for innovative health service delivery and public health interventions. This paper describes two independent studies investigating mothers' or pregnant women's perceptions of, interest in and experiences with technological devices, apps and websites about infant feeding practices.Methods: Study 1 was a cross-sectional survey conducted with 107 pregnant women in their third trimester in late 2016 and early 2017. Multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine factors associated with their app usage. The second was a qualitative study of 29 mothers of infants aged <1 year conducted in 2014. Thematic network analysis was used to explore the themes from the transcribed interviews.Results: Study 1 found that the use of apps was common among the pregnant women, with 100% having previously downloaded an app on their phone either free or paid. About 60% had used an app for health purposes. The majority reported that they were likely to use an app promoting healthy infant feeding practices, including 30% extremely likely and 53% very likely. Women with university or other tertiary level of education were more likely to use an app for promoting healthy infant feeding practices than those with other levels of education (adjusted odds ratio 3.22, 95% confidence interval 1.28–8.13). The qualitative interviews found that all the mothers were interested in a mobile program to support them with infant feeding practices. Participants felt they would benefit from individualized messages although did not want them to be sent too frequently. Further, participants also expressed the importance of having non-judgmental information and they were interested in receiving information using different modes such as videos, SMS or an app.Conclusions: Both studies suggest that using apps for promoting healthy infant feeding practices is acceptable from the perspective of mothers. There is great potential for health promotion practitioners to be engaged in app development for the purpose of promoting health in early years and health promotion in general

Essays on Experimentation

This thesis studies different directions of experimentation in contests (Chapter 1), experimentation in a principal-agent environment (Chapter 2), and information acquisition during the experimentation process (Chapter 3). While Chapter 1 and Chapter 3 focus on how players choose between different risky arms in different environments, Chapter 2 analyzes how to induce the agent to conduct the efficient amount of experimentation using retention policies. Chapter 1 studies firm innovation in terms of different directions of experimentation, where directions that expedite innovation success are often more costly. In a winner-takes-all contest where player action choices are public, players choose the faster but socially less efficient arms, leading to over-investment in inefficient directions of experimentation. We find that a social planner can restore full efficiency by setting a dynamic reward structure that offers a relatively small share of the prize to the winner initially, when players are still optimistic, and gradually increases the winner's prize share as beliefs drop over time in absence of a success. Finally, while information disclosure makes no difference in a two-armed bandit model winner-takes-all contest, we find that concealing player action choices in a three-armed bandit model improves efficiency. Chapter 2 studies a dynamic principal-agent problem where a principal hires an agent to experiment. We study how the principal can employ a retention policy to induce the agent to make the optimal decision in strategic experimentation, and show that, if the principal cannot commit to a retention policy, efficient experimentation cannot be achieved. However, when the principal can commit to a retention policy upfront, with probationary periods followed by infinite tenure, efficient experimentation can often be achieved. Chapter 3 builds an exponential bandit model with an experimentation arm and an information arm, where the information arm provides positive but inconclusive evidence about the state of the world, to study whether and when an agent would benefit from acquiring information. We find that a pessimistic agent often chooses the information arm as a last-ditch effort before he quits. Moreover, the presence of the information arm induces the agent to experiment more than what he would have otherwise.Ph.D

Investigation of early life factors associated with physical activity and screen-time of young children

Children's physical activity and screen-time are important risk factors associated with the early onset of childhood overweight and obesity. However, it is not clear what early life factors are associated with physical activity and screen-time of children aged 2 to 5 years. Studies that have examined correlates of physical activity and screen-time in preschool children were mainly cross-sectional design with mixed findings. To address this knowledge gap this thesis will investigate early life factors associated with physical activity and screen-time among children aged 2-5 years uning longitudinal data from the Healthy Beginnings Trial funded by NHMRC 393112 (Phase 1: 2007-2010) and NHMRC 1003780 (Phase 2: 2011-2014). The trial was an international first, home-based randomised controlled trial to determine whether a home-based early intervention program is effective in improving infant feeding practices and physical activity, decreasing sedentary behaviours especially screen-time (i.e., TV, computer), enhancing parent-child interaction, and hence reducing overweight and obesity among children at 2 and 5 years of age. A total of 667 first-time mothers at 24-34 weeks of gestation were recruited to the trial from antenatal clinics at Liverpool and Campbelltown Hospitals, located in south-western Sydney, Australia. Participating mothers were randomly allocated to intervention and control groups. The intervention comprised eight home visits over child's first two years of life. The participanting mothers and their children allocated to the control group received usual care (i.e. current standard practice is one home visit within a month of birth pls possible baby clinic visits) plus home safety promotion materials. Longitudinal data on mothers and children were collected at baseline (30-36 weeks of pregnancy) and when the children were aged 6 months, 1, 2, 3.5, and 5 years. The data included family demographics, BMI, self-reported outdoor play time (a proxy of physical activity time) and screen-time, as well as general information regarding social support, family functioning, parenting style, parent-child interaction, neighborhood environment, child-care arrangement, and children's sleep time. Secondary data analysis will be conducted. A number of statistical models will be built to determine factors predicting children's physical activity and screen-time. In addition, a systematic review on the associations of parental influences with physical activity and screen time among young children will be conducted. Physical activity and screen-time are modifiable risk factors contributing to childhood overweight and obesity. The research findings will have public health significance and can lead to potential health promotion interventions to be developed in tackling childhood overweight and obesity