Abstract

(1) Background: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused disruptions in the daily lives of individuals in Canada. Purpose: Examine how total and specific (i.e., watching television, using social media, going on the Internet, playing video games, and engaging in virtual social connection) recreational screen time behaviours changed throughout the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, in comparison to pre-pandemic levels; (2) Methods: Sixty four Canadians (mostly Caucasian, female, age range = 21–77 years) completed monthly surveys from April to September of 2020; (3) Results: A one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) and subsequent post hoc analysis revealed that total recreational screen time was statistically higher in late March/April (292.5 min/day ± 143.0) and into May, compared to pre-COVID-19 (187.8 min/day ± 118.3), before declining in subsequent months; (4) Conclusions: Generally, specific recreational screen time behaviours, such as time spent watching television, followed the same trend. Future studies with larger sample sizes and from other countries examining recreational screen time behaviours longitudinally over the pandemic are still needed to allow for greater generalizability.

Highlights

  • During the month of April 2020, adults who regularly wear activity trackers (e.g., Apple Watch, Garmin, FitBit) were recruited to participate in a physical activity and lifestyle behaviours study via social media advertisements

  • In Canada, widespread lockdown measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 forced Canadians to spend more time at home, which resulted in changes in recreational behaviours

  • The results suggest that despite initial increases in total and specific recreational screen time behaviours, Canadian participants showed resilience, as they were able to resume pre-pandemic levels of such behaviours once government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions began to loosen

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Summary

Objectives

The purpose of this study is to investigate how recreational screen time, and specific screen time behaviours

Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion

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