Objective: Examining associations of mother's behaviors and home/neighborhood physical activity (PA) environments with preschoolers' PA and screen time.
Design: Cross-sectional online survey.
Setting: Mothers with a 2 to 5 years old preschooler were recruited from the US panel members of Survey Sampling International.
Participants: Five hundred thirty-one mothers with a preschool child aged 2 to 5 years old.
Outcome measure: Child daily screen time and PA, mother-child inside- and outside-home co-PA.
Analysis: K-mean cluster analysis and Logit and negative binomial regressions.
Results: Mothers' healthy behaviors, such as decreased screen time, healthy eating habits, and increased PA, and perceived importance for PA were significantly (P < .05) associated with preschoolers' decreased screen time and increased PA. Available toys (P < .01) and maternal perceived neighborhood safety (P < .05) were negatively correlated with preschoolers' screen time, while available room space (P < .01) was positively correlated with preschoolers' PA. Variables positively correlated with mother-child co-PA included mothers' PA (P < .001) and healthy eating habits (P < .05), and home room space (P < .05) for inside-home, and yard space and quality (P < .05) for outside-home.
Conclusions: Mother's role modeling and home PA environment were positively associated with preschoolers' PA behavior.
Keywords: age specific; home environment; neighborhood environment; opportunity; physical activity; social support; specific populations; strategies; young children; youth.