The Child and Mother Physical Activity Study (CAMPAS) is an ongoing project led by Dr. Soyang Kwon and funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH).
Project Goals
- To develop and validate an accelerometer-based algorithm for toddler activity recognition.
- To compare physical activity levels from age 12 to 36 months between sexes (assigned at birth).
- To examine the impact (if any) of mothers’ parenting stress, and a child’s behavioral problems, with child’s regular physical activity at age 18-24 months.
Background
Physical activity (PA) development in toddlers (age 1 and 2 years) is not well understood, partly because of a lack of analytic tools for accelerometer-based data processing that can accurately evaluate PA among toddlers. This has led to a knowledge gap regarding how parenting practices around PA, mothers’ PA level, mothers’ parenting stress, and child developmental and behavioral problems influence PA development in early childhood.
Anticipated Impact
This study will be one of the first to use longitudinal data to validate a machine learning activity recognition algorithm and apply the algorithm to quantify free-living ambulatory movement in toddlers. The study findings will help fill a significant methodological gap in toddler PA measurement and expand the body of knowledge on the factors influencing early childhood PA development.