Early Childhood Routines and Adolescent Health & Well-Being: Associations From a US Urban Cohort of Children With Socioeconomic Disadvantage

Purpose: To investigate longitudinal associations between the presence of early childhood routines- predictable and repeatable functional practices that promote healthy growth, development, and relationships - and adolescent health outcomes. Design: Secondary data analysis. Setting: 20 large U.S. cities. Subjects: 2943 children with socioeconomic disadvantage from the Future of Families cohort. Measures: Routines at age 3 (shared family meals, bedtime routine, daily reading); outcomes later in the same children at age 15 (healthy routines, overall health, psychological well-being). Analysis: Descriptive statistics, regression analyses. Results: We detected longitudinal associations between early childhood routines and later adolescent routines (increased count of shared family meals by parent report [IRR 1.13, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.24, P = 0.007], bedtime routine and daily reading by adolescent report [aOR 1.34, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.67, P = 0.008; aOR 1.18, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.38, P = 0.04; respectively]). A bedtime routine in early childhood was associated with excellent health in adolescence (aOR 1.42, 95% CI: 1.12, 1.79, P = 0.004]. Adolescent routines were concurrently associated with overall health and psychological well-being. We also detected two longitudinal patterns of associations suggesting multiple mechanisms for how early childhood routines influence later health and well-being. Conclusion: Early childhood routines predict adolescent routines, and may contribute to long term adolescent health outcomes. Future studies may promote childhood routines during critical developmental stages as a strength-based strategy to promote long-term health and well-being.