INTRODUCTION:
Temperament factors in preschoolers (surgency/extraversion, negative affectivity, and effortful control) are critical for socio-emotional behavior development. The 24-hour movement guidelines (24-HMG) for preschoolers—comprising physical activity, screen time, and sleep duration—have been shown to influence their physical and mental health development. However, the relationship between adherence to the 24-HMG and temperament factors remains underexplored. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between meeting the 24-HMG and temperament factors among preschool children.
METHODS:
A convenience sampling method was used to recruit 127 preschool children (mean age = 5.54 ± 0.97 years) from public kindergartens in northern Taiwan. Parents were invited to have their children wear an ActiGraph wGT3X-BT accelerometer continuously for 24 hours over seven consecutive days to measure activity levels. Temperament factors were assessed using the Chinese version of the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire–Very Short Form. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression analyses were performed.
RESULTS:
Preschoolers who met the "Physical Activity Guidelines" were significant predictors of "surgency/extraversion" (β = 0.194, p = 0.048). Preschoolers who adhered to the "Screen Time Guidelines" (β = -0.346, p < 0.0001) and simultaneously met the "Screen Time/Sleep Guidelines" (β = -0.319, p = 0.001) significantly predicted lower levels of "negative affectivity".
CONCLUSION:
Meeting the recommended 180 minutes of daily physical activity, including at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, contributes to the development of socio-emotional behaviors such as extraversion. Additionally, preschoolers who simultaneously achieve ≤1 hour of daily screen time and ≥10 hours of sleep duration may demonstrate more positive emotional behaviors.