The development of a questionnaire to assess leisure time screen-based media use and its proximal correlates in children (SCREENS-Q)

Abstract

Background: The screen-media landscape has changed drastically during the last decade with wide-scale ownership and use of new portable touchscreen-based devices plausibly causing changes in the volume of screen media use and the way children and young people entertain themselves and communicate with friends and family members. This rapid development is not sufficiently mirrored in available tools for measuring children's screen media use. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a parent-reported standardized questionnaire to assess 6-10-year old children's multiple screen media use and habits, their screen media environment, and its plausible proximal correlates based on a suggested socio-ecological model. Methods: An iterative process was conducted developing the SCREENS questionnaire. Informed by the literature, media experts and end-users, a conceptual framework was made to guide the development of the questionnaire. Parents and media experts evaluated face and content validity. Pilot and field testing in the target group was conducted to assess test-retest reliability using Kappa statistics and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Construct validity of relevant items was assessed using pairwise non-parametric correlations (Spearman's). The SCREENS questionnaire is based on a multidimensional and formative model. Results: The SCREENS questionnaire covers six domains validated to be important factors of screen media use in children and comprises 19 questions and 92 items. Test-retest reliability (n = 37 parents) for continuous variables was moderate to substantial with ICC's ranging from 0.67 to 0.90. For relevant nominal and ordinal data, kappa values were all above 0.50 with more than 80% of the values above 0.61 indicating good test-retest reliability. Internal consistency between two different time use variables (from n = 243) showed good correlations with rho ranging from 0.59 to 0.66. Response-time was within 15 min for all participants.

Measurement of screen time among young children aged 0–6 years: A systematic review

“… 13 , 14 , 15 Time, that is, total duration, may be less important and could mask important differences in screen use. While newer measures assessing use of screens by children are being developed, 14 , 16 , 17 the methods used to quantify screen time in young children in studies conducted over the last decade are rarely scrutinized. To our knowledge, no previous review has systematically documented how screen time is measured in experimental and observational studies of young children aged 0 to 6 years.…”

An Arabic Sedentary Behaviors Questionnaire (ASBQ): Development, Content Validation, and Pre-Testing Findings

“…We used terms such as “sedentary behaviors questionnaire”, “sitting”, “sedentary behaviors assessment”, “sedentary time questionnaire”, and “subjective assessment of sedentary activity”. After excluding duplicates and screening the titles and abstracts, the search resulted in 22 relevant SB questionnaires (detailed description is shown in Table S1 ) that assessed sitting time via a multiple-item questionnaire [ 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ]. Some studies were validated with objective measurements, but five were found to be more specific for assessing sedentary behaviors and were therefore selected and fully reviewed.…”

Left to Their Own Devices? A Mixed Methods Study Exploring the Impacts of Smartphone Use on Children’s Outdoor Experiences

“…In addition to the interviews, a questionnaire was constructed. The development of the questionnaire was informed by findings from the interviews, and by previous questionnaires investigating children’s screen time and media habits [ 35 , 36 ]. The aim of the questionnaire was to investigate 5th–8th grade children’s general and outdoor use of smartphones in their leisure time.…”