Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 15, 2025
Measuring Neural Mechanisms Underlying Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation During Naps in Early Childhood
Published on: October 2, 2019
Outdoor time, screen time and sleep reported across early childhood: concurrent trajectories and maternal predictors
Katherine L Downing1, Borja Del Pozo Cruz2, Taren Sanders3
1Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia. k.downing@deakin.edu.au.
Insights
Maternal factors significantly influence children's early childhood behaviors like outdoor time, screen time, and sleep. Targeting these maternal influences can promote healthier developmental trajectories from a young age.
Area of Science:
- Child Development
- Behavioral Science
- Public Health
Background:
- Understanding developmental trajectories of outdoor time, screen time, and sleep is crucial for early intervention.
- Promoting healthy behaviors in early childhood is a key public health goal.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe concurrent trajectories of outdoor time, screen time, and sleep in early childhood.
- To identify maternal predictors associated with these behavioral trajectories.
Main Methods:
- Analyzed data from 528 children across five time points (4-60 months).
- Utilized group-based multi-trajectory modeling for concurrent behavioral patterns.
- Employed multinomial logistic regression to assess maternal predictors.
Main Results:
- Identified four distinct trajectories: 'unstable sleep, increasing outdoor time, low screen' (22%), 'high outdoor time, low screen, high sleep' (24%), 'high sleep, increasing outdoor time, low screen' (45%), and 'high screen, increasing outdoor time, high sleep' (10%).
- The 'high sleep, increasing outdoor time, low screen' trajectory represented the largest group and exhibited the healthiest behaviors.
- Maternal factors like beliefs, knowledge, self-efficacy, and behaviors regarding physical activity and screen time predicted trajectory group membership.
Conclusions:
- Four distinct developmental trajectories for outdoor time, screen time, and sleep exist in early childhood.
- Maternal beliefs, attitudes, expectations, and behaviors are significant predictors of these trajectories.
- Interventions targeting maternal factors can support healthy movement behaviors in young children.
Background:
Understanding the developmental trajectories of outdoor time, screen time and sleep is necessary to inform early interventions that promote healthy behaviours. This study aimed to describe concurrent trajectories of outdoor time, screen time and sleep across the early childhood period and their maternal predictors.
Methods:
Data across five time points at child age 4, 9, 19, 42 and 60 months from the INFANT intervention were analysed. Mothers reported their child's usual outdoor time, screen time and sleep duration, in addition to a range of maternal beliefs, attitudes, expectations and behaviours. Group-based multi-trajectory modelling was used to model concurrent trajectories of children's behaviours. Multinomial logistic regression models determined the associations of maternal predictors with trajectory groups, adjusting for child sex and baseline age, intervention allocation, and clustering by recruitment.
Results:
Of the 542 children recruited, 528 had data for outdoor time, screen time and sleep at one or more time points and were included in trajectory analyses Four trajectories were identified: 'unstable sleep, increasing outdoor time, low screen' (~ 22% of sample), 'high outdoor time, low screen, high sleep' (~ 24%), 'high sleep, increasing outdoor time, low screen' (~ 45%), 'high screen, increasing outdoor time, high sleep' (~ 10%). The 'high sleep, increasing outdoor time, low screen' group, comprising the largest percentage of the sample, demonstrated the healthiest behaviours. Predictors of group membership included: views of physically active children, screen time knowledge, screen time use, self-efficacy, physical activity optimism, future expectations for children's physical activity and screen time, perceptions of floor play safety, and maternal physical activity, screen time, and sleep quality.
Conclusions:
Four distinct trajectories of outdoor time, screen time and sleep were identified, with the most common (and healthiest) characterized by high levels of sleep. Maternal beliefs, attitudes, expectations and behaviours are important in the development of movement behaviour trajectories across early childhood. Future interventions and public policy may benefit from targeting these factors to support healthy movement behaviours from a young age.
Related Concept Videos
01:30Socioemotional Development during Infancy
Primary Temperament Types
01:21The Nativist Approach
01:13Insufficient Sleep and Sleep Deprivation
Sleep deprivation is a more severe form of sleep loss...