Screen Time and Sleep of Rural and Urban South African Preschool Children

Simone A. Tomaz, Trina Hinkley, Rachel A. Jones, Estelle D. Watson, Rhian Twine, Kathleen Kahn, Shane A. Norris and Catherine E. Draper
Additional contact information
Simone A. Tomaz: Division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7700, South Africa
Trina Hinkley: Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong 3125, Australia
Rachel A. Jones: Early Start, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong 2500, Australia
Estelle D. Watson: Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, School of Therapeutic Sciences, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa
Rhian Twine: MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa
Kathleen Kahn: MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa
Shane A. Norris: South African MRC Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit, School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa
Catherine E. Draper: Division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7700, South Africa

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 15, 1-12

Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the extent to which preschool children meet guidelines for screen time (<1 h/day) and sleep (10–13 h/24-h) and explored home factors that affect these behaviors. Parents of preschoolers across income settings in South Africa (urban high-income n = 27, urban low-income n = 96 and rural low-income n = 142) completed a questionnaire. Urban high-income children had higher rates of exceeding screen time guidelines (67.0%) than children from urban low-income (26.0%) and rural low-income (3.5%) settings. Most children (81.0%) met sleep guidelines on weekdays and on weekends (75.0%). More urban high-income children met the sleep guideline, in comparison to both low-income settings. Fewer urban high-income parents (50.0%) thought that screen time would not affect their preschooler’s health, compared to urban low-income (90.4%) and rural low-income (81.7%) parents. Weeknight bedtime was positively correlated with both weekday screen time ( p = 0.001) and weekday TV time ( p = 0.005), indicating that more time on screens correlated with later bedtimes. Meeting screen time and sleep guidelines differs across income settings, but it is evident that parents of preschoolers across all income settings would benefit from greater awareness about guidelines.

Keywords: movement behavior; pediatrics; sedentary; sitting; physical activity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/15/5449/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/15/5449/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:15:p:5449-:d:391264

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().