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Title: Psychometric validity of the parent's outcome expectations for children's television viewing (POETV) scale

Author
item O'CONNOR, TERESIA - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item CHEN, TZU - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item DEL RIO RODRIGUEZ, BETTY - Baylor College Of Medicine
item HUGHES, SHERYL - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)

Submitted to: BioMed Central(BMC) Public Health
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/15/2014
Publication Date: 9/1/2014
Citation: O'Connor, T.M., Chen, T.A., Del Rio Rodriguez, B., Hughes, S.O. 2014. Psychometric validity of the parent's outcome expectations for children's television viewing (POETV) scale. BioMed Central(BMC) Public Health. 14:894.

Interpretive Summary: TV viewing is common among elementary-school-aged children and can have both benefits and harms on children's behavioral and health outcomes. Some parents are more likely to restrict TV viewing, which often results in their children viewing less TV. However, it is not clear why some parents restrict their children's screen use and others do not. In order to convince parents in future interventions to restrict TV viewing to recommended amounts, understanding what influences parents to restrict TV viewing is important. Parents' outcome expectations reflect their beliefs of the benefits or harms for allowing their child to watch TV and other screen media. These beliefs may influence whether parents restrict children's TV viewing. Our goal was therefore to develop a measure of Parent's Outcome Expectations for children's TV Viewing (POETV) and test how well the new survey worked in measuring this concept among parents with children 6-12 years old. We recruited an ethnically diverse sample of parents from Harris County, Texas, who completed the POETV survey, demographics, and parent and child TV viewing and other screen media using an internet survey. Sophisticated analysis was used to identify both benefits (Positive) and harmful (Negative) POETV reported by parents. Two types of Positive POETV were identified: benefits to the parents (Parent Centered) and benefits to the child (Child Centered). In addition, two types of Negative POETV were identified: the harmful effect of inappropriate content on children's behavior and eating (TV & Content Exposure) and the harmful effect of TV in preventing physical activity and family time (Prevent Other Activities). The two positive (beneficial) POETV types were associated with greater TV and other screen use among children, while one of the negative (harmful) POETV types, Prevent Other Activities, was associated with less TV and other screen use among children. These findings support that these parental beliefs influences their children's screen media use behaviors. The Positive and Negative POETV scales therefore offer a new tool to better define predictors of screen media parenting practices and child screen media use behaviors to be used in intervention and observational studies.

Technical Abstract: TV and other screen use are common among elementary-school-aged children with both potential benefits and harms. It is not clear why some parents restrict their children's screen use and others do not. Parents' outcome expectations for allowing their child to watch TV and other screen media, i.e., the perceived costs and benefits, may be influential. Our objective was to develop a measure of Parent's Outcome Expectations for Children's TV Viewing (POETV) and test the psychometrics of the resulting instrument among parents with children 6-12 years old. An ethnically diverse sample (n=311) of parents from Harris County, Texas, completed measures for POETV, demographics, and parent and child TV viewing and other screen media use via an internet survey. The sample was randomly split, and an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted among the first half of the sample separately for Positive and Negative POETV. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) assessed the fit of the resulting factors with the data in the second half of the sample. Internal reliabilities and Spearman partial correlations (controlling for confounders) of children's TV and other screen use with the resulting POETV factors were calculated for the full sample. EFA identified two factors for Positive POETV (Parent Centered; Child Centered) and two factors for Negative POETV (TV & Content Exposure; Prevent Other Activities). Follow up CFA confirmed moderate to good psychometric properties for both factor structures with the addition of four correlated errors in the Positive POETV model. Internal reliabilities were appropriate (Cronbach's alpha >0.7). Parent Centered Positive POETV and Child Centered Positive POETV were correlated with children's TV viewing on weekdays (0.14, p<0.05) and weekends (0.17, p<0.01) respectively. Both also correlated with other screen media use on weekends (0.20 and 0.21, p<0.001). Prevent Other Activities Negative POETV was negatively correlated with children's TV viewing on weekdays (-0.16, p<0.01), weekends (-0.14, p<0.05) and other screen media on weekends (-0.14, p<0.05). The Positive and Negative POETV scales offer a new tool to better define predictors of screen media parenting practices and child screen media use behaviors.