title: Parental Influences on Preschoolers' TV Viewing Time: Mediation Analyses on Australian and Belgian Data.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Television viewing is highly prevalent in preschoolers (3-5 years). Because of the adverse health outcomes related to this behavior, it is important to investigate associations and mediators of young children's television viewing time. This study investigated whether parental rules regarding television viewing time and parental concerns about screen viewing activities mediated the association between parents' and preschoolers' television viewing time.
  
  
  METHODS
  Mediation analyses were performed with the product-of-coefficient test on data derived from the Australian HAPPY study (n = 947) and the Belgian sample of the ToyBox-study (n = 1527). Parents reported their own and their child's television viewing time, their rules regarding television viewing and concerns about their child's screen viewing activities.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Parents' television viewing time was directly associated with preschoolers' television viewing time and parental rule for television viewing time mediated this association in both samples (14.4% and 8.1% in the Australian and Belgian samples, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study is unique in examining the mediating pathway of parental television viewing and a rule limiting TV viewing time and whether this is consistent in different samples. Due to the consistent importance, both parents' television viewing time and rules should be targeted in interventions to decrease preschoolers' television viewing time.
authors.affiliation: Dept of Movement and Sport Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: De Decker
authors.forename: Kylie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hesketh
authors.forename: Marieke
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Craemer
authors.forename: Trina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hinkley
authors.forename: Ilse
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: De Bourdeaudhuij
authors.forename: Jo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Salmon
authors.forename: Greet
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cardon