Abstract
BackgroundScreen media exposure has been increasing in the preschool years. Risky aspects of screen exposure have many potential negative effects on children’s health. We aimed to evaluate problematic screen exposure in Turkish preschool children by using a unique tool called the “Seven-in-Seven Screen Exposure Questionnaire” and to investigate factors associated with problematic screen exposure.MethodsA questionnaire form was designed including general descriptive questions in the first part. In the second part, a questionnaire we designed called the “Seven-in-Seven Screen Exposure Questionnaire” was conducted to evaluate problematic screen exposure characteristics. The questionnaire included seven items: daily screen time, viewing with parent(s), setting screen limits, screen exposure during meals and in the hour before bedtime, age of onset of screen exposure, and viewing low-quality content. The total problematic screen exposure score (range 0–13) was generated by summing scores from the seven items. Total scores are classified into two categories: low (< 7) and high (≥ 7). Logistic regression was performed to search for independent parameters associated with problematic screen exposure.ResultsOne thousand two hundred forty-five mother-child pairs participated in this study. The median age of the children was 3.9 (IQR: 2.9–4.7) years and 51% were males. Overall, 280 children (22.5%) had a problematic screen exposure score of ≥7 (high). The median problematic screen exposure score was 4 (IQR: 3–6). Maternal age of < 30 years; paternal age of ≥30 years; maternal educational level of ≤12 years; the age of 24–48 months; home-based daycare; postponing eating, toileting, or sleeping while using a screen; and using touchscreen devices were found to be associated with an increased risk of having a high problematic screen exposure score.ConclusionDeveloping national scales to monitor problematic screen use in children would be more effective than monitoring screen time alone. All of the screen use characteristics not recommended in children would be evaluated using problematic screen exposure scales. The “Seven-in-Seven Screen Exposure Questionnaire” may serve as an example for further studies.
Highlights
Screen media exposure has been increasing in the preschool years due to emerging technologies, growing marketing of digital media devices, increasing familial and societal use of screen media, and easy access to or ownership of screen media devices by younger children [1]
While counselling parents/ caregivers of preschool children on the recommended use of screen media, practical questionnaires may be useful. Starting from this point of view, we aimed to evaluate problematic screen media exposure in Turkish preschool children by using a unique tool called the “Seven-inSeven Screen Exposure Questionnaire”, and to investigate factors associated with problematic screen media exposure
Previous studies reported a positive relationship between age and screen time in preschool children [22, 33,34,35], while this study found that an age of 49–72 months old was associated with a decreased risk of having a high problematic screen exposure (PSE) score compared to children aged 24–48 months old
Summary
Screen media exposure has been increasing in the preschool years due to emerging technologies, growing marketing of digital media devices, increasing familial and societal use of screen media, and easy access to or ownership of screen media devices by younger children [1]. Risky aspects of screen use such as excessive screen time, non-educational screen content, unsupervised screen use, rule-less screen use, and early onset of screen use have many potential negative effects on children’s health [1, 2]. The reasons for focusing on this age group are as follows: (i) preschool children may form habits and early excessive screen exposure increases the likelihood of excessive screen use in later life; (ii) health routines are established more in younger children than older ones; and (iii) screen use tends to increase over time, to experience more entertainment [6,7,8,9,10,11]. We aimed to evaluate problematic screen exposure in Turkish preschool children by using a unique tool called the “Seven-in-Seven Screen Exposure Questionnaire” and to investigate factors associated with problematic screen exposure
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