Abstract
Increased screen time has been found to be associated with a number of negative health and wellbeing indicators in youth populations. An increasing number of studies have investigated the association between screen time and wellbeing in adolescents, but evidence in younger children is still emerging. This 2017 study explored the effect of leisure screen time and gender on dimensions of wellbeing (measured using KIDSCREEN-27) in a national sample of 897 Irish primary school children aged 8–12 years. Participants had a mean age of 10.9 ± 1.16 years and were 47.7% female. Just over 30% of the sample accumulated 2 h or more of leisure screen time daily. Results show that there was no significant interaction between screen time category (<2 h/2 h + daily) and gender on overall wellbeing, while controlling for BMI. Children who self-reported <2 h of leisure screen time scored significantly higher on four dimensions of wellbeing: physical, parental, peers, and school, but not psychological. This study supports the growing evidence of the impact that leisure screen time has on health. Further longitudinal research investigating the impact of sub-categories of leisure screen time behaviour on wellbeing is warranted.
Highlights
Screen time refers to the time spent on screen-based behaviours that can be performed while being sedentary or physically active [1]
This study investigated the effect of leisure screen time and gender on wellbeing in a cohort of primary-school-aged children
With research emanating from Europe reporting that wellbeing decreases with age [47], the fact that these wellbeing levels or Irish children are lower in comparison is concerning, while reinforcing the idea that this trend is happening at scale
Summary
Screen time refers to the time spent on screen-based behaviours that can be performed while being sedentary or physically active [1]. Increased screen time has been found to be related to a number of negative health and wellbeing indicators in youth populations. Andersen et al [12], in a nationally representative sample (n = 2964) of US children aged 4–11 years, highlighted age (older), gender (female), and BMI-for-age ≥95th percentile as characteristics that increase the probability of high screen time. O’Brien et al [14] highlighted an inverse relationship between screen time and overall wellbeing, but no relationship between screen time and BMI, in Irish children of social disadvantage (n = 705, aged 7–9 years). Lane et al [15] reported from a nationally representative sample of 8568 nine year old Irish children that screen time increased the risk of overweight and obesity. There is a growing recognition of the influence that wellbeing and BMI have on one another, with results indicating that obesity has a strong negative influence on wellbeing [16]
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