Moving Together: Understanding Parent Perceptions Related to Physical Activity and Motor Skill Development in Preschool Children

Background: Establishing physical activity (PA) and motor behaviors in early childhood are important for developing healthy activity behaviors. Parents play a central role in shaping young children’s PA and fundamental motor skills (FMS). This qualitative study explored parents’ attributes, values, perceptions, and practices related to PA and FMS. Methods: Thirty-one parents (26 mothers) of preschool-aged children participated in semi-structured in-person interviews. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, coded and analyzed using an iterative approach. Results: Four themes related to PA and FMS emerged: (1) parent attributes; (2) parent–child interactions; (3) parent perception of children’s attributes; and (4) parenting practices. Although most parents enjoyed playing with their child, some did not realize the importance of engaging in PA with their child and even believed that FMS are naturally developed. Parents indicated that children’s temperament may influence their preference for practicing motor skills. Conclusions: Social support and positive parenting practices, including encouragement, monitoring, logistical support, co-participation, and facilitation, are important for the development of PA and FMS. The findings add emphasis to the importance of parents’ role in the development of young children’s PA and FMS, and they inform future strategies aiming to promote young children’s activity behaviors.

Parent Perception of Child Safety following Admission to a Neonatal Unit

Objective Parent partnership is a key aspect of neonatal hospital care. However, there is a lack of information regarding parents' perception of neonatal safety. This study explores parents' opinions on safety during their child's hospitalization to identify points for improvement. Study Design We used a questionnaire, validated by the Spanish National Healthcare Authorities, on perception of safety with respect to hospital health care. Results Thirty-seven parents of 20 newborns treated in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and 139 parents of newborns in intermediate care (IC) participated in this study. With regard to overall perception of safety, more than 96% of parents felt “very safe” or “fairly safe.” In the NICU, an area for improvement detected was to ask parents more often their opinion about the care or treatment provided to their child. In IC, three points for improvement were identified from the group of parents whose child was admitted directly to IC: the consistency of the information received, the request for consent for procedures, and the request for an opinion on their child's care and treatment. Only four parents reported that their child suffered an incident. Regarding incident management, parents were not completely satisfied with the information they received. Conclusion To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of parent perception of patient safety in a neonatal unit using a validated questionnaire. Our findings suggest that parents can provide valuable information on neonatal safety, which can then be used to identify areas for improvement. Key Points

Systematic Review of Factors Affecting Foster Parent Retention

This study utilized the PRISMA protocol to conduct a systematic review of the literature published in the United States from 1989 to 2018 to identify factors that affect foster parent retention. Foster parent perception of their own limitations within the child welfare system, the child welfare system’s ability to function fluidly, and the foster parents’ relationship with the agency affects retention. In addition, the lack of material resources or inadequacy of funding to cover the cost of services for the child was identified as a barrier to retention. Personal attributes such as flexibility, confidence, and motivation contributed to the caregiver retention as did attending pre-service and in-service training, and having peer support from an experienced foster parent.

Perspectives of infant active play: a qualitative comparison of working versus stay-at-home parents

Background Parents play a key role in infant’s development through their interactions and the type of environment they provide to promote active play. The amount of time parents are able to spend with their infant is dependent on their working status, yet few studies have explored parent perception of their infant’s active play by working status. The purpose of this study was to explore parent perception of active play and compare responses between working and stay-at-home parents. Methods Twenty-nine parents participated in this qualitative study by completing a one-time, in-person semi-structured interview based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. Themes were developed and compared based on parental working status using a directed content analysis approach. Results All parents believed active play could have a positive effect on their child’s development through physical, social and emotional, cognitive, and/or language and communication development. However, stay-at-home parents reported a broader impact of active play across these domains; whereas working parents most often referenced active play as impacting infant’s physical development. Social and emotional interactions were the highest reported form of active play among all parents. Additionally, all parents described similar barriers to increasing the time for active play. The most commonly reported barrier for all parents was time or schedule followed by care needs of the infant, environmental concerns, and need for restrictive devices (e.g., car seats). More stay-at-home parents than working parents reported the care needs of the infant as being a barrier. Recommendations for active play were not widely known amongst all parents, with a higher percentage of working parents reporting they would desire advice from a healthcare provider. Conclusions Working status of parents appears to have implications on perceptions of active play which in turn may influence infants’ development. Future studies should objectively assess the impact of parents’ working status on infant development and explore how gender of the parent may serve as a confounding variable.

Self-Perceptions, Parents’ Perceptions, Metaperceptions, and Locomotor Skills in Adolescents With Visual Impairments: A Preliminary Investigation

Individuals with visual impairments (VI) trend toward lower motor competence when compared with peers without VI. Various forms of perception often affects motor competence. Thus, it is important to explore factors that influence forms of perception and their differential effects on motor competence for those with VI. Therefore, the purposes of this study were to explore and describe the differential effects of age, gender, and degree of vision on self-perceptions, parents’ perceptions, metaperceptions, and locomotor skills, and to examine potential associations among all variables with actual locomotor competence for adolescents with VI. Adolescents with VI completed two questionnaires and the Test of Gross Motor Development-Third Edition. Parents completed a parent perception questionnaire. Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis H analyses showed no differential effects for gender or age on any dependent measures. Degree of vision affected locomotor skills, but not any other factor. Spearman rho correlations showed significant associations among locomotor and self-perceptions, degree of vision and locomotor, and metaperceptions with parents’ perceptions. Adolescents reported relatively high self-perceptions and metaperceptions; however, their actual locomotor competence and parents’ perceptions were relatively low. Findings may help situate future intervention strategies targeting parents supporting their children’s locomotor skills through self-perceptions.