Table 3.
Parents’ awareness, attitudes and practices pertaining to children’s screen-related behaviors by children’s screen time (%).
| All (n=496) | Children’s screen time | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| <2hrs/d n=127 | ≥2hrs/d n=369 | ||
| Attitudes | |||
| Inactivity is as dangerous as smoking | 73.0 | 76.5 | 71.8 |
| Inactivity increases risk of diseases | 88.8 | 88.8 | 88.8 |
| Children spending several hours per day watching TV is… | |||
| Harmful | 74.0 | 78.2 | 72.6 |
| Unhealthy | 84.9 | 86.1 | 84.5 |
| Of no use | 56.9 | 64.0 | 54.4 |
| Of concern | 80.0 | 86.1 | 77.8* |
| Children spending several hours per day using a computer is… | |||
| Harmful | 57.5 | 61.4 | 56.2 |
| Unhealthy | 72.4 | 77.3 | 70.7 |
| Of no use | 42.5 | 47.9 | 40.6 |
| Of concern | 67.4 | 75.8 | 64.5 |
| Social influence | |||
| Screen viewing rules | |||
| Parents should limit children’s TV time | 80.1 | 83.9 | 78.7 |
| I use TV/computer to entertain/keep my child quiet | 34.4 | 33.7 | 34.6 |
| I never let my child decide how much time he/she spends on TV | 64.4 | 73.2 | 61.3* |
| Parent’s activity preferences | |||
| I like to play sports/outdoor activities in my leisure time | 79.7 | 86.5 | 77.3* |
| I like to watch TV/videos/movies in my leisure time | 34.5 | 29.7 | 36.2 |
| Parental/family activity patterns | |||
| Parents participate in physical activities 3 times or less/week | 37.0 | 39.0 | 36.3 |
| Parent often/always engages in sports/physical activities with children | 33.9 | 35.3 | 33.9 |
| My family eats meals in front of the TV | |||
| Sometimes | 23.8 | 15.8 | 26.6** |
| Often/always | 13.7 | 10.1 | 15.0 |
| Parent’s leisure time with children watching TV and videos or using a computer | |||
| <1 hr/d | 51.5 | 70.7 | 44.7* |
| 1–1.9 hrs/d | 49.7 | 26.2 | 44.4* |
| 2–4 hrs/d | 8.3 | 3.0 | 10.1 |
| >4 hrs/d | 0.3 | 0 | 0.4 |
12 cases were excluded due to missing values. Difference between low and high screen users by Chi-Square test,
*
p <0.05,
**
p< 0.01