A parent’s mental health is linked to their teenager’s screen time and exercise habits

A study of over 5000 parent-adolescent pairs in Finland found that better parental mental well-being was associated with higher physical activity and lower digital media use in their 11-year-old children. These associations were present at 14 years of age as well. The paper was published in Mental Health and Physical Activity.

Overweight and obesity among children and adolescents have been visibly increasing in recent decades. At the moment, they represent a major global health challenge. Moreover, being overweight during childhood tends to continue into adulthood and increases the risk of health problems such as cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders. Low physical activity and prolonged periods spent sitting while using digital media are considered important contributors to the obesity epidemic among young people.

Estimates state that, globally, about 80% of adolescents aged 11–17 do not meet recommended levels of physical activity. Digital media use has also risen substantially in recent decades. Studies indicate that, once developed, these habits tend to persist into adulthood.

One factor potentially affecting children’s health behaviors is parental mental health. Parents experiencing depression may struggle to establish healthy routines for physical activity and digital media use for themselves and their children. Previous research suggests that maternal stress or depression may be associated with lower physical activity, more sedentary behavior, an unhealthy diet, and a higher obesity risk in children, although existing evidence is limited and mixed.

Study author Lauri Hietajärvi and his colleagues wanted to investigate how parental mental well-being may influence adolescents’ behavioral and health outcomes. They sought to identify mental health profiles of parents of 11-year-olds and examine whether they are associated with their children’s physical activity levels, digital media use, and body mass index.

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These authors analyzed data from the Finnish Health in Teens study. This is a study of school-aged adolescents in Finland including 10,785 9- to 12-year-old adolescents and 6046 parents. The analyses presented in this study involved 5839 parent-adolescent pairs. Parents’ mean age was 42 years at the start of the study. 89% of parents were mothers, and 51% of participating adolescents were girls.

Study authors used data on parents’ mental well-being (based on the Short Form of the Beck’s Depression Inventory, the Sense of Coherence Scale, and the RAND-36 Mental Component Summary for health-related quality of life), and on participating adolescents’ body mass index, leisure-time physical activity, and sedentary digital media use.

Results showed that, on average, participating adolescents had about 6.5 to 7.3 hours of physical activity per week, and reported spending around 1.6 to 1.8 hours per day using digital media on weekdays and about 2.4 to 2.9 hours per day on weekends. 14-15% of adolescents were overweight.

Further analyses revealed that better parental mental well-being was associated with higher physical activity levels and lower sedentary digital media use in their 11-year-old children. These associations were still present when the adolescents reached 14 years of age.

Looking into specific aspects of parental mental well-being, results showed that greater parental depressive symptoms were associated with lower physical activity in their children, while a greater parental sense of coherence was associated with less digital media use. Parental mental well-being was not associated with their children’s body mass index.

“Better parental mental wellbeing was associated with higher adolescent leisure-time physical activity and lower sedentary digital media use in both early and mid-adolescence, suggesting that parental wellbeing may influence adolescents’ health behaviors and warrants further investigation. These findings underscore the potential value of addressing parental mental wellbeing in strategies aimed at promoting healthier lifestyles among youth,” the study authors concluded.

The study sheds light on the links between the mental well-being of parents and the behavioral habits of their adolescent children. However, it should be noted that the design of the study does not allow any definitive causal inferences to be derived from the results. Additionally, the study was conducted in Finland and results in other countries and cultures might differ.

The paper, “Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between parental mental wellbeing and adolescents’ physical activity, sedentary digital media use, and body mass index,” was authored by Lauri Hietajärvi, Erika Maksniemi, Jari Lahti, Kirsti Lonka, Heli Viljakainen, and Elina Engberg.