Screen time of adolescents in an economically developing country: The case of Turkey

Abstract

Background: Most studies of screen time of adolescents have been carried out in well-developed countries. There is little information concerning screen time of adolescents in developing countries such as Turkey.

Aim: This study examined the screen time of adolescents with regard to gender, school type and sport participation in Turkey, selected as an example of an economically developing country.

Subjects and methods: A total of 916 high school students participated in this study. The household activities and sport indexes of the Physical Activity Assessment Questionnaire were administered to the participants.

Results: Male students had higher screen time (hours/day) than female students and the screen time of the adolescents was longer at the weekends than on weekdays (p < 0.01). The students attending private schools spent more screen time on both weekdays and weekends than those attending public schools (p < 0.01). The results did not reveal significant screen time differences with regard to participation duration in sport activities (p>0.05).

Conclusions: Male adolescents and students attending private schools had a higher screen time rate than their counterparts, both on weekdays and at the weekend. Participating in sport for different durations did not make any difference to the screen time of these adolescents.

Keywords::

• Screen time
• adolescents
• school type
• sport participation
• developing country

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.