Individual and family environmental correlates of television and computer time in 10- to 12-year-old European children: the ENERGY-project

Abstract

BackgroundThe aim was to investigate which individual and family environmental factors are related to television and computer time separately in 10- to-12-year-old children within and across five European countries (Belgium, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Norway).MethodsData were used from the ENERGY-project. Children and one of their parents completed a questionnaire, including questions on screen time behaviours and related individual and family environmental factors. Family environmental factors included social, political, economic and physical environmental factors. Complete data were obtained from 2022 child–parent dyads (53.8 % girls, mean child age 11.2 ± 0.8 years; mean parental age 40.5 ± 5.1 years). To examine the association between individual and family environmental factors (i.e. independent variables) and television/computer time (i.e. dependent variables) in each country, multilevel regression analyses were performed using MLwiN 2.22, adjusting for children’s sex and age.Results and discussionIn all countries, children reported more television and/or computer time, if children and their parents thought that the maximum recommended level for watching television and/or using the computer was higher and if children had a higher preference for television watching and/or computer use and a lower self-efficacy to control television watching and/or computer use. Most physical and economic environmental variables were not significantly associated with television or computer time. Slightly more individual factors were related to children’s computer time and more parental social environmental factors to children’s television time. We also found different correlates across countries: parental co-participation in television watching was significantly positively associated with children’s television time in all countries, except for Greece. A higher level of parental television and computer time was only associated with a higher level of children’s television and computer time in Hungary. Having rules regarding children’s television time was related to less television time in all countries, except for Belgium and Norway.ConclusionsMost evidence was found for an association between screen time and individual and parental social environmental factors, which means that future interventions aiming to reduce screen time should focus on children’s individual beliefs and habits as well parental social factors. As we identified some different correlates for television and computer time and across countries, cross-European interventions could make small adaptations per specific screen time activity and lay different emphases per country.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-015-2276-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Testing the Moderating Role of Social Context on Media Violence Effect in the Case of Peer Aggression among Adolescents

“…Croatian adolescents spend significant amount of time using different media and most of them spend 5 or less hours per day watching TV, in most of the cases with their parents present. These results are in line with earlier studies which revealed that most children watch TV around three hours per day (Bilić, 2010;Verloigne et al, 2015) and with common knowledge that TV is most often family activity in the families with children. However, it is worth noting that around 10% of the adolescents watch TV more than 5 hours per day, which could represent a risk factor for their social and emotional development.…”

“…To sum it all up, the average American child, between the age of 8 and 18 years, spends 6 hours and 21 minutes every day using some kind of entertainment media (Roberts, Foehr, & Rideut, 2005), and that is the longest time period that a child spends in any activity, except sleeping (Roberts, 2000). Similar duration of TV and video games use was found among the youth in European countries as well (Verloigne et al, 2015).…”

“…In addition most of the adolescents also reported spending up to 5 hours per week playing video games which corresponds to some European data according to which children play video games around 1.5 hours per day (Verloigne et al, 2015). Half of the adolescents reported to play video games alone, while more than one third of them reported usually playing with their peers.…”

“…Most of the studies revealed that children on average watch TV around three hours per day (AEM/ UNICEF, 2014; Bilić, 2010;Brug et al, 2012), and some even show that children spent more time watching television than being in school (Marini, Dane, & Bosacki, 2006). Time spent in playing video games adds to children and youth daily screen time since almost half of youth play it every day around 1 to 3 hours (Bilić, 2010;Lenhart et al, 2008;Verloigne et al, 2015). In addition, almost all adolescents (97%), and somewhat fewer children, use the Internet (UCLA Internet Report, 2003).…”

Effect of a multicomponent intervention on variables related to screen time in adolescents: a cluster-randomized controlled trial

“…There are distinct aspects that are associated with the components of screen time 24 . For example, while television time has been associated with interpersonal variables, such as the family environment, computer and video game time has been associated with intrapersonal variables, such as preference for this behavior 24 .…”