Abstract

BackgroundGlobally, there is an increasing prevalence of excessive screen time exposure among young children, including in Malaysia. Parents are advised to limit this exposure, but there are barriers for many of them to follow this recommendation. To date, there is a lack of research on the factors that cause these parental barriers.ObjectiveThis study aimed to determine the parental barrier toward the reduction of excessive child screen time and its predictors among parents of children aged younger than 5 years in the Petaling District, Selangor, Malaysia.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted from April 2019 to June 2020 among 789 parent-child dyads attending child health clinics in the Petaling District. Validated self-administered questionnaires were used to capture information on sociodemographic, parental, child-related, and environmental factors and parental barriers. Stratified sampling with probability proportionate to size was employed. Data were analyzed using SPSS Statistics version 25 (IBM Corp). Descriptive analysis and bivariable analysis were performed before multiple linear regression was used to identify predictors of parental barriers.ResultsThe overall mean score of parental barriers was 3.51 (SD 0.83), indicating that the average numbers of barriers experienced by parents were more than 3. The multivariable analysis showed that the predictors of parental barriers included monthly household income (adjusted β=–.03, 95% CI –0.05 to –0.02), parents who worked in public sectors (adjusted β=.18, 95% CI 0.06 to 0.29), positive parental attitude on screens (adjusted β=.68, 95% CI 0.58 to 0.79), low parent self-efficacy to influence child’s physical activity (adjusted β=–.32, 95% CI –0.43 to –0.20), and child screen time (adjusted β=.04, 95% CI 0.02 to 0.06).ConclusionsThe strongest predictor of parental barriers to reduce excessive child screen time was the positive parental attitude on screen time which could contribute to their abilities to limit child screen time. Thus, future intervention strategies should aim to foster correct parental attitudes toward screen time activities among young children.

Highlights

  • Screen time refers to the total amount of time a person spends passively on any screen-based technology such as smartphone, tablet, video game, computer, television, or any wearable device [1,2]

  • This study aimed to investigate parental barriers toward the reduction of a child’s screen time and relevant predictors from the aspect of sociodemographic, parental, child-related, and environmental factors among parents of children aged younger than 5 years who attended child health clinics in the Petaling District, Selangor, Malaysia

  • This study was conducted in health clinics because all government health clinics in Malaysia offer free child health services such as health screening, developmental and nutritional status assessment, immunizations, and dental health services that are accessible for all local citizens [29,30]

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Summary

Introduction

Screen time refers to the total amount of time a person spends passively on any screen-based technology such as smartphone, tablet, video game, computer, television, or any wearable device [1,2]. Studies from two developed countries in Asia (ie, Singapore and Japan) reported that children aged younger than 5 years were exposed to both television and other devices an average of 4 hours per day [8,9]. Even more worrying is the fact that as high as 74% of Malaysian children aged younger than 2 years have been exposed to screen time, in contrast to the World Health Organization recommendation [11]. Objective: This study aimed to determine the parental barrier toward the reduction of excessive child screen time and its predictors among parents of children aged younger than 5 years in the Petaling District, Selangor, Malaysia. Future intervention strategies should aim to foster correct parental attitudes toward screen time activities among young children

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