Covid 19 Salgını Süresinde Okul Öncesi Çocukların Ekran Süresinin Değişiminde Ebeveyn Tutumlarının Rolünün Çevrim İçi Anket İle Değerlendirilmesi

Abstract

With the begining of the lockdown process, like many other people the time spent by children at home increased. The increase in the time children spend at home during the lockdown process can also lead to a change in their screen exposure. It was aimed to investigate the relationship between the change in screen time of preschool children according to both parent-child characteristics and parental attitudes in this study. This cross-sectional online study including 403 mother- preschool children dyads . A self-completion-structured survey form and Parent Attitude Scale were filled by volunteer mothers. The mean ± SD age of the children was 4.3 (± 1.2) years and 51.6 % were males, 54.6% were cared for by their parents during daytime in the pandemic period. Mean (± SD) age of the mothers at the time of delivery was 30 (± 4.3) years, 64.3% of them were working. Three in four of the parents had an education level of 12 years or more. When parents were asked about the change in the average screen time of the child during the pandemic period; it was observed; 26.1% of parents stated that there was no change in the screen time of their child, 70% stated the screen time of the child increased and 4% stated decreasing of the child’s scren time. In the analyses ofthe relationship between the change in screen time and child characteristics during the pandemic period; child being older (≥ 4 years vs < 4 years old) and had more screen time before the pandemic created a higher risk for increased screen time during the pandemic period. Also being in parental care of the child during the day during the pandemic period created less risk in terms of increased screen time compared to being in nursery care and grandparent care. When the parental attitude scale sub-scores were compared according to the screen time change during the pandemic period; it was observed the authoritarian score was high and the overprotective score was low in the group with increased screen time. Screen time spent by preschool children was found to be related to the attitudes of their parents from an early age.