May 1, 2012 Parents can have a significant impact in steering
young children away from too much time spent in sedentary
pursuits. This new study, in the American Journal of Health
Promotion, found this effect in Hispanic families, whose
children are more likely to be sedentary than non-Hispanic white
children and who are also especially vulnerable to becoming
overweight or obese. “We found that family support is very
important for reducing children’s sedentary behaviors,” said
author Zhen Cong, Ph.D., an assistant professor of human
development and family studies at Texas Tech University. The
sedentary behaviors were mainly TV-watching, computer use and
video-game playing, referred to as “screen time”.