Movement behaviours and physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development in preschool-aged children: Cross-sectional associations using compositional analyses

Abstract

Background: Movement behaviours (e.g., sleep, sedentary behaviour, and physical activity) in isolation have demonstrated benefits to preschool-aged children's development. However, little is known on the integrated nature of movement behaviours and their relationship to healthy development in this age range. Thus, the objective of this study was to examine the relationships between accelerometer-derived movement behaviours and indicators of physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development using compositional analyses in a sample of preschool-aged children.

Methods: Children (n = 95) were recruited in Edmonton, Canada. Movement behaviours were measured with ActiGraph wGT3X-BT accelerometers worn 24 hours/day. Physical (i.e., body mass index [BMI] z-scores, percent of adult height, and motor skills), cognitive (i.e., working memory, response inhibition, and vocabulary), and social-emotional (i.e., sociability, externalizing, internalizing, prosocial behaviour, and cognitive, emotional, and behavioural self-regulation) development were assessed. Objective height and weight were measured for BMI z-scores and percent of adult height, while the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 was used to assess motor skills. The Early Years Toolbox was used to assess all cognitive and social-emotional development indicators. Compositional linear regression models and compositional substitution models were conducted in R.

Results: Children accumulated 11.1 hours of sleep, 6.1 hours of stationary time, 5.1 hours of light-intensity physical activity (LPA), and 1.8 hours of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) per day. Movement behaviour compositions were significantly associated with physical (i.e., locomotor skills, object motor skills, and total motor skills) and cognitive (i.e., working memory and vocabulary) development (R2 range: 0.11-0.18). In relation to other movement behaviours in the composition, MVPA was positively associated with most physical development outcomes; while stationary time had mixed findings for cognitive development outcomes (i.e., mainly positive associations in linear regressions but non-significant in substitution models). Most associations for LPA and sleep were non-significant.

Conclusions: The overall composition of movement behaviors appeared important for development. Findings confirmed the importance of MVPA for physical development. Mixed findings between stationary time and cognitive development could indicate this sample engaged in both beneficial (e.g., reading) and detrimental (e.g., screen time) stationary time. However, further research is needed to determine the mechanisms for these relationships.

Fig 1. Participant flow diagram.