Associations between 24-hour Movement Compositions and Daily Affect in Preschool Children

• In Event: Young Children's Emotion Expression and Understanding

Abstract

Robust literatures tout moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sleep as facilitators of optimal physical, psychological, and cognitive health and development in preschool-age children (Carson et al., 2017; Dutil et al., 2018). Critically, most of this work fails to account for the interrelated nature of the entire movement behavior spectrum including sleep, sedentary time, light physical activity (LPA), and MVPA. This has significantly limited our understanding of relationships between movement behaviors that fully encompass a young child’s day and night. In contrast, the 24-hour movement paradigm offers an innovative approach to better understand how compositions of movement behaviors shape health and development during the preschool years(Tremblay, 2020). Limited research has investigated 24-hour movement compositions in preschool children and whether these are associated with behavior and affect in daily life. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to investigate cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between 24-hour movement compositions and affect reported via ecological momentary assessment. Baseline assessment data from the Children’s Health in Lab and Life (CHiLL) study were used in analyses. This ongoing, two-wave longitudinal study was designed to assess physical activity, sleep, affect, and health outcomes in a community sample of preschool-age children. A total of 101 preschool-age children (Mage= 3.84 years ± 0.80 years; range 3-5 years; 55% male) and their caregivers completed a week-long actigraphy and ecological momentary assessment protocol. Children’s’ 24-hour movement behaviors including sleep, sedentary time, LPA, and MVPA were measured using ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometers. The device was secured by a band and worn on the nondominant wrist 24 hours per day across 7 days. During this same 7-day period, caregivers rated their child’s affect four times per day (28 unique ratings) using a cellphone-based application. Compositional data analysis techniques were used (Dumuid et al., 2018), as movement behaviors are mutually exclusive, and codependence amongst behaviors must be taken into account (e.g., reducing sleep would mean a child spends more time in sedentary, LPA, or MVPA). After adjusting for potential confounders (age and sex), results demonstrated associations between movement compositions and daily positive affect; significant negative associations were found when predicting energy and excitability from light activity. Of greater interest, isotemporal substitution models indicated significant effects of time reallocation. Reallocating 15 minutes of time from light activity to sleep (b=.042, 95%CI= .003, .081) or sedentary time (b=.039, 95%CI= .003, .075) increased energy in daily life (Figure 1). Similarly, reallocating 15 minutes of time from light activity to sleep (b=.062, 95%CI= .018, .11) or sedentary time (b=.041, 95%CI= .001, .081) increased excitability in daily life (Figure 2). These results substantially extend evidence linking positive affect with 24-hour movement behaviors in a sample of preschool age children by incorporating models that account for the interdependence of all sleep and activity behaviors. Exciting possibilities exist for future research to investigate divergence in movement compositions and later impacts health, development, and wellbeing. For example, time reallocation might be one effective strategy to enhance positive affect in young children.

Authors

• Diana Whalen, Washington University in St. Louis
  Presenting Author

• Amanda J Wright

• David Alex Puricelli, Washington University in St. Louis

• Kiran Boone, Washington University in St. Louis