EPPOC (Ecrans en Pédopsychiatrie en Occitanie au temps du COVID) : enquête en juillet 2020 sur l’utilisation des écrans chez les enfants des services de pédopsychiatrie en Occitanie avant et pendant confinement (17 mars au 11 mai): Résultats du volet parents

Abstract

The EPPOC survey (flash survey in July 2020 in outpatient and hospital child psychiatry state departments in Occitania) allowed documenting parents’ and adolescents’ view on screen use, and on the impact of the first confinement (March to May 2020) on this variable in a pedopsychiatric population. To our knowledge, no such study exists. ResultsOne hundred six parents answered for their child (3 to 18 years old, 11.2 on average). Their answers were fractioned into three age groups (45.3 % of children were in kindergarten-primary, 30. 2 % in college, and 24.5 % in high school). Children mostly use television (93.8 %) and mobile phones (81.3 %). A third of the children used their screens for more than 4hours a day on weekends, 11.7 % on weekdays: this last proportion increased to 48.6 % during confinement. A third of the children had at least one type of screen in their room: this data correlates to an increase of screen time, especially during weekends. Children mainly used screens in the afternoons and evenings, especially in the high school students group. During confinement, the number of moments (morning, noon, afternoon, evening, before bedtime, other) of screen use during the day increased for 90.4 % of them. High school students spent most of their time on videos (91.3 %), social networks (82.6 %) and listening to music (73.9 %). The youngest mainly played games (72.5 %) and watched videos (70.7 %). Screen use was a problem for 37.3 % of parents prior to confinement. They put boundaries to screen use mainly for the youngest children: this seemed to have a positive impact on their child's reduction of screen time. ConclusionThe pedopsychiatric population of our care units did not seem to have a different screen use profile than the general population, based on their parents’ perception. The main elements increasing the time spent on screens in our study were the child having a screen in his/her room, parents not limiting screen time, and home confinement. However, the adjective “intensive” used in most studies to describe screen use should be redefined to include the child's age, the type of screen use (type of screens, type of activity, activity shared by the parent or not, etc.), the impact on the user's daily life and the level of addiction which should nuance the notion. Describing screen use and whether one should worry about it is a complex issue. The number of hours spent on screens is not a sufficient criterion. One should add the number of moments during the day when the screens are used, and the type of practice as well as a dependency score. These parameters altogether would better characterize the impact of screen use in daily life, and how much it occupies one's mind. In addition, sharing these tools would allow the caregivers to have a useful framework of discussion with the patients.