Building your best day: Disseminating the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth via an interactive website

Congratulations to Dr. Mark Tremblay on his recent publication “Building your best day: Disseminating the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth via an interactive website” just published in Child: Care, Health and Development! The abstract and citation are below.

Abstract

Background: The Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth (‘Guidelines’) were the world’s first public health guidelines to integrate recommendations for physical activity, screen time/sedentary behaviour, and sleep. Build Your Best Day! (BYBD) is an interactive website developed as part of the Guidelines’ knowledge translation strategy. Guided by Diffusion of Innovations Theory, the current study examined whether interacting with BYBD alters parents’ and youths’ perceptions of the Guidelines and increases their intentions for adoption.

Methods: Eleven parents (M_age = 43 years, SD = 5; 45% male) and 17 youth (M_age = 12 years, SD = 1; 53% male) participated in a mixed-methods, semi-structured interview. Research followed a single session pre-post design, with participants interviewed before and after interacting with BYBD. Items focused on perceptions of the Guidelines generally and on BYBD specifically. A concurrent think-aloud method was utilized to explore the process of visiting BYBD. T-tests and Cohen’s effect sizes were used to examine pre-post changes and differences between parents and youth. Qualitative data were examined via content analysis.

Results: Both youth and parents identified the Guidelines as a beneficial public health resource. Despite favourable intention ratings (parents: M = 5.6/7, SD = 1.1; youth: M = 6.4/7, SD = 1.1), participants discussed that they would be unlikely to adhere to the Guidelines on a regular basis with the primary barrier to adoption being a perceived lack of time. Parents’ and youths’ Guidelines ratings showed favourable changes following BYBD. For instance, youth reported that BYBD improved their understanding of the Guidelines (pre: M = 5.5/7, SD = 1.1; post: M = 6.4/7, SD = 0.9, d = 0.91, p < 0.007). Likewise, parents reported a higher perceived advantage post-BYBD (M = 6.3/7, SD = 0.7) relative to pre-BYBD (M = 5.9/7, SD = 0.9; d = 0.45, p < 0.007). Parents were sceptical of BYBD’s effectiveness and attributed improved ratings to increased familiarity with the Guidelines rather than the website.

Conclusions: Results suggest that the Guidelines are well-received by parents and youth and that BYBD may be an effective tool for improving youths’ understanding. Future research may benefit from examining strategies to increase individuals’ confidence in their ability to achieve the Guidelines.

Citation

Gierc M, Walters A, Tennant EM, Tremblay MS, Faulkner G, Latimer-Cheung A. Building Your Best Day: Disseminating the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth via an Interactive Website. Child Care Health Dev. 2026;52(1):e70186. doi:10.1111/cch.70186