• Natalia I Heredia, Ethan T Hunt, and Kevin Lanza.
• The University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHealth) at Houston, School of Public Health, United States of America. Electronic address: Natalia.i.heredia@uth.tmc.edu.
• Prev Med. 2024 Jun 1; 183: 107973107973.

ObjectiveThis study assessed how parental nativity and perceived environment are associated with physical activity and screen time of U.S. children and adolescents.MethodsData originated from the 2020-21 U.S. National Survey of Children's Health. We conducted multivariable Poisson regression to assess the cross-sectional association of parental nativity and perceived neighborhood environment variables on parental reports of youth meeting national physical activity and screen time guidelines. We tested interactions of parental nativity and neighborhood environment variables on both outcomes. Analyses were conducted using STATA v17 and p < 0.05 indicated statistical significance.ResultsThe sample of 24,928 children and 30,951 adolescents was 11.6 years of age, on average, with approximately 39% under 200% of the federal poverty level. About one-third of the sample (27.5%) had foreign-born parents. In adjusted models, we found that compared to youth with U.S.-born parents, those with foreign-born parents had a lower prevalence of meeting physical activity guidelines. Youth whose parents reported living in safe neighborhoods had a higher prevalence of meeting guidelines for physical activity (children: PR = 1.20, 95%CI 1.14, 1.27; adolescents: PR = 1.23, 95%CI 1.14, 1.32) and screen time (children: PR = 1.19, 95%CI 1.13, 1.26; adolescents: PR = 1.16, 95%CI 1.06, 1.28) than youth whose parents reported unsafe neighborhoods. We found similar associations between neighborhoods considered supportive or with many amenities and meeting physical activity and screen time guidelines.ConclusionsYouth whose parents are foreign-born have a lower prevalence of sufficient activity, and perceived parental neighborhood safety and support may be significant influences on youth physical activity and screen time.Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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