Lower Body Mass Index Z-Score Trajectory During Early Childhood After the Birth of a Younger Sibling

Measurement of screen time among young children aged 0-6 years: A systematic review

The impact of screen-based devices on children's health and development cannot be properly understood without valid and reliable tools that measure screen time within the evolving digital landscape. This review aimed to summarize characteristics of measurement tools used to assess screen time in young children; evaluate reporting of psychometric properties; and examine time trends related to measurement and reporting of screen time. A systematic review of articles published in English across three databases from January 2009 to April 2020 was undertaken using PROSPERO protocol (registration: CRD42019132599) and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Included articles measured screen time as outcome, exposure, or confounder in children 0-6 years. The search identified 35,868 records, 1035 full-text articles were screened for eligibility, and 622 met inclusion criteria. Most measures (60%) consisted of one to three items and assessed duration of screen time on a usual day. Few measures assessed content (11%) or coviewing (7%). Only 40% of articles provided a citation for the measure, and only 69 (11%) reported psychometric properties-reliability n = 58, validity n = 19, reliability and validity n = 8. Between 2009 and 2019, the number of published articles increased from 28 to 71. From 2015, there was a notable increase in the proportion of articles published each year that assessed exposure to mobile devices in addition to television. The increasing number of published articles reflects increasing interest in screen time exposure among young children. Measures of screen time have generally evolved to reflect children's contemporary digital landscape; however, the psychometric properties of measurement tools are rarely reported. There is a need for improved measures and reporting to capture the complexity of children's screen time exposures.

Learned Experience and Resource Dilution: Conceptualizing Sibling Influences on Parents' Feeding Practices

Studies from diverse cultures report mixed results in the relationship between birth order and risk for obesity. Explanations may thus lie in the postnatal period when growth is shaped by the family environment, including parental feeding practices, which may be affected by siblings. Consistent with a family systems perspective, we describe two processes that may explain birth order effects on parental feeding practices and child outcomes: learned experience and resource dilution. Parents learn from experience when earlier-born children influence their parents’ knowledge, expectations, and behavior toward later-born siblings through their behaviors and characteristics—which can have both positive and negative implications. Resource dilution is a process whereby the birth of each child limits the time, attention and other resources parents have to devote to any one of their children. The goal of this review is to provide a theoretical basis for examining potential sibling influences on parental responsive feeding toward developing recommendations for future research and practice aimed at preventing obesity throughout family systems.