Associations Between Maternal Mental Health and Well-being and Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children.
Jaclyn P Maher, Chaelin Ra, Sydney G OʼConnor and 4 others
PMID 28671891WHAT IT FOUND
The main links between mothers' mental health and children's measured activity did not hold up after the researchers accounted for testing many associations.
In single-parent households, more parenting stress was linked to about ten fewer active minutes daily.
Key findings
01After the researchers corrected for testing many associations, the links between maternal self-esteem and child activity were no longer significant.
02In single-parent households, higher maternal parenting stress was associated with about ten fewer minutes of daily MVPA, and this interaction remained after correcting for many tests.
03In single-parent households, higher maternal parenting stress was associated with about 33 more sedentary minutes per day assuming sixteen waking hours, but this did not remain significant after correcting for many tests.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Mothers were highly educated and had generally positive mental health profiles, so the results may not apply to families with lower education or poorer mental health. Eligibility excluded mothers working two or more weekday evenings per week or more than 8 hours on a weekend day, which may have removed mothers with poorer mental health. Some children had fewer than four valid accelerometer days, while four days are recommended. This may have introduced measurement bias. The analysis was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that maternal mental health caused child activity patterns. After multiple-comparison adjustment, several tentative associations were no longer significant, and the study was underpowered to detect effects after correction.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that improving maternal self-esteem or reducing parenting stress will change child activity. The study is cross-sectional, and after correcting for many tests the self-esteem links and the sedentary interaction were no longer significant; only the parenting stress and household type link to activity remained.