Table 1.
Comparison of characteristics by children’s status of excessive screen time and early screen exposure
| Characteristics | Excessive screen time | p value | Early screen exposure | p value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Yes | No | Yes | |||
| N = 3251 | N = 1734 | N = 4393 | N = 592 | |||
| Children | ||||||
| Mean age (years), mean (SD) | 4.6 (1.0) | 4.6 (0.9) | 0.397 | 4.6 (1.0) | 4.5 (1.0) | < 0.001 |
| Gender, n (%)c | 0.514 | 0.434 | ||||
| Boy | 1702 (52.4%) | 891 (51.4%) | 2294 (52.2%) | 299 (50.5%) | ||
| Girl | 1549 (47.6%) | 843 (48.6%) | 2099 (47.8%) | 293 (49.5%) | ||
| Single child, n (%)c | 0.074 | 0.541 | ||||
| Yes | 1573 (48.4%) | 793 (45.7%) | 2092 (47.6%) | 274 (46.3%) | ||
| No | 1678 (51.6%) | 941 (54.3%) | 2301 (52.4%) | 318 (53.7%) | ||
| Primary caregiver, n (%)c | < 0.001 | 0.049 | ||||
| Mother | 2275 (70.0%)a | 1117 (64.4%)b | 3011 (68.5%)a | 381 (64.4%)b | ||
| Father | 206 (6.3%)a | 127 (7.3%)a | 296 (6.7%)a | 37 (6.3%)a | ||
| Others | 770 (23.7%)a | 490 (28.3%)b | 1086 (24.7%)a | 174 (29.4%)b | ||
| Parent | ||||||
| Mather’s age, mean (SD) | 33.5 (4.5) | 32.6 (4.7) | < 0.001 | 33.2 (4.6) | 33.2 (4.7) | 0.933 |
| Father’s age, mean (SD) | 35.8 (5.6) | 35.1 (5.5) | < 0.001 | 35.6 (5.5) | 35.5 (5.7) | 0.842 |
| Parental marital status, n (%)c | 0.001 | 0.523 | ||||
| Married | 3131 (96.3%) | 1635 (94.3%) | 4203 (95.7%) | 563 (95.1%) | ||
| Unmarried | 120 (3.7%) | 99 (5.7%) | 190 (4.3%) | 29 (4.9%) | ||
| Education level, n (%)c | < 0.001 | 0.567 | ||||
| Junior high school or below | 246 (7.6%)a | 208 (12.0%)b | 394 (9.0%) | 60 (10.1%) | ||
| Senior high school | 622 (19.1%)a | 493 (28.5%)b | 986 (22.5%) | 129 (21.8%) | ||
| Bachelor’s degree | 2146 (66.1%)a | 975 (56.3%)b | 2758 (62.8%) | 363 (61.3%) | ||
| Master’s degree or above | 235 (7.2%)a | 56 (3.2%)b | 251 (5.7%) | 40 (6.8%) | ||
| Monthly per-capita income, n (%)c | < 0.001 | 0.612 | ||||
| ≤ 5000 RMB | 796 (24.5%)a | 562 (32.4%)b | 1204 (27.4%) | 154 (26.0%) | ||
| 5001–10,000 RMB | 903 (27.8%)a | 454 (26.2%)a | 1207 (27.5%) | 150 (25.3%) | ||
| 10,001–15,000 RMB | 472 (14.5%)a | 256 (14.8%)a | 635 (14.5%) | 93 (15.7%) | ||
| > 15,000 RMB | 668 (20.5%)a | 279 (16.1%)b | 827 (18.8%) | 120 (20.3%) | ||
| Uncertain | 412 (12.7%)a | 183 (10.6%)b | 520 (11.8%) | 75 (12.7%) | ||
| Family harmony scores, mean (SD) | 21.0 (4.8) | 20.8 (4.6) | 0.053 | 21.0 (4.7) | 20.5 (4.5) | 0.015 |
| Parenting styles, mean (SD) | ||||||
| Rejection scores | 7.4 (1.7) | 7.8 (1.8) | < 0.001 | 7.5 (1.7) | 7.6 (1.7) | 0.113 |
| Emotional warmth scores | 22.9 (4.6) | 22.2 (4.5) | < 0.001 | 22.6 (4.7) | 23.1 (4.0) | 0.017 |
| Overprotection/Control scores | 15.5 (2.9) | 15.8 (2.7) | < 0.001 | 15.6 (2.9) | 15.7 (2.7) | 0.284 |
| Parental negative emotional states, n (%)c | ||||||
| Depression | 151 (4.6%) | 117 (6.7%) | 0.002 | 229 (5.2%) | 39 (6.6%) | 0.164 |
| Anxiety | 181 (5.6%) | 157 (9.1%) | < 0.001 | 286 (6.5%) | 52 (8.8%) | 0.039 |
| Stress | 177 (5.4%) | 125 (7.2%) | 0.013 | 249 (5.7%) | 53 (9.0%) | 0.002 |
SD Standard Deviation. 1 US$ ≈ 7.11 RMB (RMB stands for Renminbi, the official name of China’s currency)
Each superscript letter (a or b) denotes a subset of excessive screen use categories or early screen exposure categories whose column proportions do not differ significantly from each other at the 0.05 level
cColumn percentages