Developmental Disorders Postgraduate Program, Center for Biological and Health Sciences, Mackenzie Presbiterian University, São Paulo, Brazil.
Communication Department, Wake Forest University, NC, United States.
Infant Behav Dev. 2023 Nov;73:101885. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2023.101885. Epub 2023 Aug 28.
Contradicting pediatric societies' recommendations, studies show that screen exposure begins at the first year of life for many children worldwide, with parental needs, educational purposes, and parental stress emerging as associated factors. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has likely worsened this scenario. This study aims to: 1) estimate the average daily screen exposure time for Brazilian infants aged 0-23 months during the COVID-19 pandemic based on caregiver report; 2) analyze the correlation between average exposure time, parental motivations for exposure, parental burnout levels and infant age; and 3) test the predictive role of parental motivations, burnout, and infant age on infant screen exposure. For this purpose, 139 parents (living in Brazil) answered online to questionnaires on infant screen exposure, parental motivations for exposure (four subscales: Parental Needs; Educational; Child's Desires/Family Routine; Behavioral Control), and parental burnout (Total score; four subscales: Emotional Exhaustion; Contrast; Feelings of Being Fed Up; Emotional Distancing). On average, infants were exposed to screens for 131 min/day. Higher scores on the four parental motivation subscales and higher parental burnout (specifically the Contrast subscale) correlated with longer exposure times. Furthermore, the motivation subscales Parental Needs and Child's Desires/family routine, the burnout subscale Contrast and infant age predicted greater screen exposure, while the burnout scale Feelings of Being Fed Up predicted less exposure. Our results suggest that infants in Brazil were exposed to substantial amounts of screen time during the pandemic. Interventions aiming to reduce screen time must consider parental motivations and parental burnout/mental health along with infant age.
与儿科协会的建议相反，研究表明，全球许多儿童在生命的第一年就开始接触屏幕，父母的需求、教育目的和父母的压力是与之相关的因素。然而，COVID-19 大流行可能使这种情况恶化。本研究旨在：1）根据照顾者的报告，估计巴西 0-23 个月大婴儿在 COVID-19 大流行期间的平均每日屏幕暴露时间；2）分析平均暴露时间、父母暴露动机、父母倦怠水平与婴儿年龄之间的相关性；3）检验父母动机、倦怠和婴儿年龄对婴儿屏幕暴露的预测作用。为此，139 名家长（居住在巴西）在线回答了关于婴儿屏幕暴露、父母暴露动机（四个分量表：父母需求；教育；孩子的愿望/家庭常规；行为控制）和父母倦怠（总分；四个分量表：情绪耗竭；对比；疲惫感；情感疏离）的问卷。平均而言，婴儿每天接触屏幕 131 分钟。父母动机的四个分量表得分较高，父母倦怠（特别是对比分量表）较高，与较长的暴露时间相关。此外，动机分量表父母需求和孩子的愿望/家庭常规、倦怠分量表对比和婴儿年龄预测了更大的屏幕暴露，而倦怠量表疲惫感预测了更小的暴露。我们的结果表明，巴西的婴儿在大流行期间接触了大量的屏幕时间。旨在减少屏幕时间的干预措施必须考虑到父母的动机和父母的倦怠/心理健康，以及婴儿的年龄。
