title: Parental guidance advised: associations between parental television limits and health behaviors among obese children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine associations between parental limits on TV viewing and child health behaviors.
  
  
  METHODS
  We surveyed 816 parents of children 6 to 12 years of age who were participating in a primary care-based obesity intervention. The main exposures were parental limits placed on child TV viewing time and TV content. Outcomes included screen-related behaviors, sleep habits, eating routines, and physical activity. We performed bivariate and multivariable analyses to examine independent associations of parental TV viewing rules with our outcomes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In multivariable analyses adjusted for child age, sex, race/ethnicity; parental education and US-born status; income and primary language, children whose parents set limits on TV time were less likely to have a TV in their bedroom (odds ratio [OR] 0.45; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.31, 0.64) or to fall asleep while watching TV (OR 0.47; 95% CI 0.34, 0.67). Children with parental limits spent fewer weekday hours watching TV (-0.38 hours/day; 95% CI -0.54, -0.21), playing video or computer games (-0.15 hours/day; 95% CI -0.25, -0.04), and using the Internet (-0.08 hours/day; 95% CI -0.15, -0.006). In addition, children with limits on TV time were less likely to eat breakfast (OR 0.73; 95% CI 0.53, 0.99) or dinner (OR 0.53; 95% CI 0.39, 0.73) with the TV on, and they slept longer during weeknights: 0.21 hours/day (95% CI 0.05, 0.36). Moreover, children whose parents set rules on TV programming content were also less likely to have a TV in their bedroom (OR 0.37; 95% CI 0.18, 0.79).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The relationship between parental limits on TV viewing and obesogenic child behaviors deserves further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Division of General Pediatrics, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Mass. Electronic address: Jennifer.Cheng@childrens.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Jennifer K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Obesity Prevention Program, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, Mass.
authors.forename: Renata L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Koziol
authors.affiliation: Division of General Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, Boston, Mass.
authors.forename: Elsie M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Taveras
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D004522:Educational Status; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D016487:Parenting; D010290:Parents; D063766:Pediatric Obesity; D012737:Sex Factors; D012890:Sleep; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013690:Television; D013997:Time Factors; D018910:Video Games
keywords: diet; obesity; parent; physical activity; sleep; television