Abstract
Mobile media is an emerging factor that may affect children’s dietary behaviors in the family environment. However, little research has examined associations between mobile media use and children’s food intake within family units. Particularly, though studies have suggested that parents’ mobile media use can affect parental mediation and distract parenting, few have examined the interpersonal associations between parents’ mobile media use and their child’s food consumption while controlling for the interdependence between parents and children. Adopting the actor-partner interdependence model, this research investigates the dyadic associations between mobile media use and food consumption in parent-child dyads. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Singapore with a national sample of 291 children aged 7–18 years and their parents (i.e., 291 parent-child dyads). Daily mobile media use and daily healthy and unhealthy food intake were measured for both children and parents. Findings demonstrated that parents’ mobile media use was associated with both their own and their child’s healthy and unhealthy food intake. In addition, children’s mobile media use was associated with their own unhealthy food intake but not healthy food intake after controlling for covariations of variables between parents and children. Findings were generally consistent across children’s age groups. This research suggests that parents’ mobile media use has substantial impacts on their child’s eating behaviors, and children’s healthy food intake may be better explained by parental influences than by their own mobile media use. This study provides new insights into children obesity prevention efforts based on reduced mobile media use in the family environment.
Highlights
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This research adopts the actor-partner interdependence model to reveal the dyadic associations between mobile media use and food consumption in parent-child dyads.
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Parents’ mobile media use was positively associated with their child’s unhealthy food intake after controlling for the child’s mobile media use.
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Parents’ mobile media use was negatively associated with their child’s healthy food intake after controlling for the child’s mobile media use.
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Associations between parents’ mobile media use and child’s food consumption were consistent across both pre-adolescent and adolescent groups.
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This work was supported by the Singapore Ministry of Health’s National Medical Research Council under its Health Services Research Grant (NMRC/HSRG/0068/2016). The funders had no role in the design, analysis, or writing of this article.
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J.L. conceptualized, initiated, and led the manuscript; J.L., Y.C., and S.M. drafted the manuscript; J.L. provided data analysis. M.L. obtained the funding. All authors contributed to the manuscript writing, reviewed the content, and agreed with the submission.
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Approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of Nanyang Technological University. The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.
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Lu, J., Cayabyab, Y.M., Malik, S. et al. The Associations between Mobile Media use and Food Consumption in Parent-Child Dyads. J Child Fam Stud 31, 2005–2014 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02241-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02241-0