Change in screen time of preschool children according to parental attitudes during the COVID-19 pandemic with an online survey

ABSTRACT

The relationship between the change in the screen time of preschool children according to both parent–child characteristics and parental attitudes was investigated in an online study involving 403 mothers. Mothers completed a questionnaire on baseline characteristics and Parent Attitude Scale. Multiple logistic regression and generalized linear models revealed the associations. Change in screen time was grouped as “increase” and “no increase”. 70% stated an increase in the screen time during the pandemic period. The overprotective score was low in the group with increased screen time after adjusting parental age, education, and working status, family type, number of the children, the enrolled child’s age, gender, daily screen time before the pandemic, and caregiver of the child. The child having longer screen time also had higher risk for the history of an increase in screen time in the lockdown period. This situation shows a need for parental guidance for healthy screen use.

KEYWORDS:

• Pre-schoolers
• screen time
• pandemic
• lockdown
• parental attitude scale

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Authorship

SSY was responsible for formulating the research question and for analysing the data; DY for collection of the data and drafting the article. All authors reviewed and edited the final version of the manuscript.

Availability of data and material

Data can be requested from the corresponding author ([email protected]).

Consent to participate

Written informed consents were taken online from one parent before filling online questionnaire.

Ethics approval

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.