Table 2.
Children’s attitudes, motivation and practices towards screen viewing and use by children’s gender and screen time (%).
| All n=508 | Gender | Screen time | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Girls n=259 | Boys n=249 | <2hrs/d n=132 | ≥2hrs/d n=376 | ||
| Attitudes | |||||
| I feel exercise is important | 96.2 | 98.1 | 94.3 | 96.8 | 96.0 |
| Watching TV for several hours on weeknights is… | |||||
| Bad | 67.8 | 70.5 | 65.0* | 81.4 | 62.7** |
| Unhealthy | 79.4 | 77.4 | 81.5 | 86.5 | 77.1 |
| Not useful | 48.6 | 55.2 | 48.6 | 61.8 | 48.6** |
| Bothering to my parents | 35.2 | 35.3 | 35.2 | 36.1 | 34.8 |
| Watching TV for several hours on weekends is… | |||||
| Bad | 46.8 | 47.3 | 46.2 | 63.8 | 40.8** |
| Unhealthy | 74.5 | 73.6 | 75.6 | 81.3 | 72.3 |
| Not useful | 50.4 | 52.7 | 48.2 | 58.7 | 47.8** |
| Bothering to my parents | 26.1 | 24.2 | 28.0 | 31.4 | 24.4 |
| Spending several hours playing video games is… | |||||
| Bad | 52.8 | 48.4 | 57.4** | 61.6 | 49.7 |
| Unhealthy | 61.6 | 52.5 | 71.0** | 63.5 | 61.6 |
| Not useful | 45.8 | 42.2 | 49.4** | 51.8 | 43.7* |
| Bothering to my parents | 27.0 | 21.5 | 32.6** | 25.6 | 27.4 |
| Spending several hours using the computer for entertainment is… | |||||
| Bad | 53.5 | 56.0 | 50.9** | 63.6 | 49.9 |
| Unhealthy | 72.2 | 71.5 | 72.9 | 80.1 | 69.3 |
| Not useful | 43.2 | 45.1 | 41.3* | 50.4 | 40.8* |
| Bothering to my parents | 31.3 | 30.4 | 32.2 | 30.9 | 31.4 |
| I watch TV… | |||||
| for entertainment | 82.2 | 79.3 | 85.3 | 79.4 | 83.2 |
| because I am bored | 57.5 | 58.3 | 56.6 | 50.4 | 60.1 |
| to spend time with family | 44.4 | 47.2 | 41.6 | 42.8 | 45.1 |
| to spend time with friends | 26.9 | 26.4 | 27.4 | 16.8 | 30.5** |
| to learn stuff for my life | 20.0 | 20.9 | 19.0 | 21.6 | 19.5 |
| to learn stuff for school | 12.8 | 11.9 | 13.7 | 15.1 | 12.1 |
| I use a computer to | |||||
| do homework assignment | 75.2 | 81.6 | 68.5* | 82.6 | 72.8 |
| play games myself | 64.6 | 65.4 | 64.6 | 58.2 | 67.0 |
| instant message friends | 51.0 | 60.0 | 41.8** | 42.9 | 53.7 |
| e-mail friends | 47.6 | 56.4 | 38.5** | 41.4 | 49.6 |
| play games online | 46.0 | 43.7 | 48.3 | 34.7 | 49.8* |
| surf the internet | 41.3 | 38. 6 | 44.0 | 37.7 | 42.6 |
| play games with friend(s) | 33.0 | 34.8 | 31.2 | 28.3 | 34.7 |
| I play video games…# | n=375 | n=151 | n=224 | n=83 | n=292 |
| for entertainment | 87.0 | 81.0 | 91.0 ** | 85.2 | 87.4 |
| because I am bored | 57.9 | 62.0 | 55.2 | 59.2 | 58.6 |
| to spend time with friends | 40.6 | 32.9 | 45.7 | 31.3 | 44.1 |
| to learn stuff for my life | 5.2 | 3.3 | 6.5 | 3.7 | 5.7 |
| to learn stuff for school | 5.0 | 4.0 | 4.6 | 1.2 | 5.4 |
| Social influence | |||||
| Perceived parental rules during the week | |||||
| limit TV | 49.7 | 52.8 | 46.6 | 54.0 | 48.2 |
| limit video game | 54.7 | 55.0 | 55.9 | 58.8 | 53.6 |
| limit computer use for homework | 29.7 | 33.2 | 26.2 | 27.8 | 30.4 |
| limit computer use for non homework | 62.8 | 68.1 | 57.5 | 68.1 | 61.0 |
| Perceived parental rules on weekend | |||||
| limit TV | 32.4 | 31.0 | 33.7 | 40.0 | 29.7* |
| limit video game | 37.2 | 38.9 | 36.5 | 51.8 | 33.1** |
| limit computer use for homework | 22.1 | 23.1 | 21.1 | 22.7 | 21.9 |
| limit computer use on other than homework | 51.8 | 56.2 | 47.4 | 64.6 | 47.4** |
| Intention | |||||
| If I had a choice, I would spend more time taking part in physical activity | 69.1 | 74.3 | 63.9** | 78.0 | 66.1** |
#
the numbers in this row represented sample size for video game players only, as not all subjects played video grams.
Group difference by Chi-Square test,
*
p <0.05,
**
p< 0.01