Play–Sleep Nexus in Indonesian Preschool Children before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed Indonesians’ behaviors and has had an impact on many facets of daily life. People’s lives are becoming increasingly dependent on digital technologies, which is a phenomenon with conflicting effects on people’s health and happiness. This cross-sectional study focused on one such influence, namely, how the shift from the period before to during COVID-19 has affected children’s playtime and sleep duration. As part of a multicenter study, 618 adult caregivers (parents, family members, or babysitters) who visited the kindergarten in question on behalf of preschool children aged 2–5 years (4.04 ± 1.39) were surveyed on the children’s play and sleep habits before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia, particularly Java Island (before pandemic, N = 309; during pandemic, N = 309). ANOVA was used for a statistical analysis to describe the difference between groups and within time collections. Significant favorable relationships were found between pre-pandemic and post-pandemic playtime and sleeping time on weekdays, weekends, and averaged weekday-weekend (r = 0.437; 0.180 and 0.321, all p < 0.05) were detected. Before the pandemic, children’s playtime (4.11 vs. 3.55 h) and sleep duration (10.92 vs. 10.70 h) were significantly greater on the weekend than on the weekday (p < 0.05) but not during the pandemic (playtime: 3.48 vs. 3.45 h and sleep duration: 10.83 vs. 10.80 h; all p > 0.05). The COVID-19 pandemic had no impact on sleep duration or playtime in Javanese preschool children. Efforts should be intensified to promote the value of playtime and sleep duration among children in this age range so that the future of Indonesian children’s can be ensured.

Time to Play in Javanese Preschool Children—An Examination of Screen Time and Playtime before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The research was approved by the ethics committees of the Institute of Research and Community Service, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Indonesia (540/UN34.21/TU/2019) and that of the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU IRB-2019-02-036). The study involved the same group of adult parent respondents living on Java island, Indonesia, as previously reported by Fauziah and her colleagues that examined the play-sleep nexus of preschool children on Java island, Indonesia [19]. Unlike the cited study, the proportion of total playtime spent that was of MVPA quality on a weekday and a weekend was examined in the present study Further, parent accompaniment during child screen time and child playtime are unique features in the present study.…”