Factors related to children’s screen use: the influence of parent–child interaction and parents’ working time schedules in Greater Taipei

ABSTRACT

This paper adopts the ‘Child Well-Being Study in Greater Taipei’ to examine factors associated with children’s screen use. This Study was conducted in 2017 and 2018 with 6,480 caregivers of primary school aged children. The hierarchical regression analysis shows that parent–child interaction and parents’ working time schedules are associated with children’s screen use. Based on the findings, this paper suggests that governments and social workers could provide courses and activities to promote parent–child interaction, encourage the implementation of flexible working time arrangements and offer childcare support for parents working atypical hours to reduce children’s excessive screen use.

KEYWORDS:

• Screen use
• parent–child interaction
• working time schedule
• atypical working hours
• flexible working time

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Professor Joyce Yen Feng, Professor Wen-Jui Han and members of National Taiwan University Children and Family Research Center for providing funding, support and advices for this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data statement

The data that support the findings of this research are available from National Taiwan University Children and Family Research Center. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for this research. Data are available at https://cfrc.ntu.edu.tw/index.php?lang=en with the permission of National Taiwan University Children and Family Research Center.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Taiwan University Children and Family Research Center

Notes on contributors

Pei-Yuen Tsai

Pei-Yuen Tsai is an associate professor at Graduate Institute of Social Work, National Chengchi University, Taiwan. His research focuses on work-family balance, child and family policies and poverty in Taiwan and East Asia.