| Abstract [eng] |
The literature focuses more on young children's screen time and its consequences, but rarely considers what might be influencing it. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the links between parental involvement in the child's use of devices with screens and emotional and behavioral difficulties of 2-5 year old children. This work uses data from the project "Modern information technologies and the health of young children" (no. GER-006/2017; director Prof. Dr. Roma Jusienė). There were two stages of the study, the continuous sample consisted of 199 children, whose age in 2017 was 40.75 (9.95) months, in 2019-2020 - 68.18 (10.11) months. The Child Behavior Inventory (CBCL/1½-5, Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000) was used to assess children's emotional and behavioral difficulties. Total screen time was measured by the derived total screen time in minutes. Parental involvement variables were measured with questions designed specifically for this study. Emotional difficulties at the first stage were found to be positively related to children's total screen time (first stage) and to the use of TV as a “background” (second stage). Behavioral difficulties in the first phase were positively related to the use of TV as a “background” (second phase) and negatively related to the application of rules related to screens (first phase). In the second stage, greater emotional and behavioral difficulties were associated with the younger age of the children. It was found that children whose parents kept the most IT devices in the child's room had the most behavioral problems, and the group of children whose parents had the most screen-related rules had the least behavioral problems. Children's emotional difficulties in the second stage were predicted by children's behavioral difficulties in the first and second stages; and behavioral difficulties in the second stage were significantly explained by behavioral difficulties in the first stage and emotional difficulties in the second stage. And the factors of parents' involvement in the child's use of devices with screens did not emerge as significant in explaining children's emotional and behavioral difficulties in the second stage. |
