Rachael Sharman

The experience of motherhood is commonly characterised by role overload and inability to find time and energy for adequate levels of physical activity (PA). Unfortunately, despite clear evidence that regular PA is linked to physical and psychological health, exercise and PA levels of women and mothers are low. In response to the limitations of previous research in this area, this current investigation aimed to explore PA behaviour, stage of PA behaviour change, and role overload in adult women with children in early childhood and middle childhood (early motherhood: Mother of a child less than six years, or as middle motherhood: Mother of a child aged 6 to 9 years and with no children under 6 years of age). Following ethical approval and informed consent 331 mothers (Mage = 35.5 years, SD = 6.8) over the age of 18 years with one or more children less than 14 years-of-age completed an on-line survey (85% completion rate). Results indicated that neither PA behaviour, t(329) = .227, p = .820, stages of physical activity change, 2(4) = 5.52, p = .340, nor role overload, t(329) = .635, p = .526, significantly differed across motherhood groups. Role overload was significantly higher for mothers in the contemplation, planning, and action stages of PA than in the maintenance stage of change, F(4, 326) = 5.06, p = .001. However, role overload was only weakly, although significantly negatively correlated with PA, r = -.184, p less than .001. While these findings do confirm that role overload is a factor associated with activity levels in mothers, the correlation analysis demonstrated that only less than 4% of a mother's PA is explained by her reported role overload. In conclusion, strategies focused upon reducing role overload or changing perceptions of role overload, have only limited potential to meaningfully increase PA in mothers.

Although it might be expected that parents and teachers would establish similar assessments of a child's behaviour, this is often not the case. This study's aim was to examine the correspondence of parent and teacher ratings of adaptive and challenging behaviours for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) enrolled in an early intervention program. Ratings were compared for the Behavior Assessment System for Children, second edition (BASC-2; n = 22), and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, second edition (VABS-II; n = 28), which are common assessment tools for measuring progress over time that thus require accuracy. Results showed that adaptive behaviour ratings generally demonstrated high parent-teacher correlations, but challenging behaviour ratings demonstrated relatively low correlations. Only adaptive skills on the BASC-2 showed significant mean parent-teacher differences, with parent ratings suggesting greater impairment. Although statistical power limits the conclusions, results suggest that adaptive behaviours are elicited across situations and interpreted by parents and teachers relatively consistently. In contrast, challenging behaviours, particularly attention problems and hyperactivity, may be more situation-driven or susceptible to different interpretations. This suggests that clinicians should consider gaining both parent and teacher perspectives on a child with ASD's challenging behaviour, but that a single informant measure of adaptive behaviour, either parent or teacher, may be sufficient.