Kids on screens extra day a week

Alarming lockdown research

SCREEN time among Australian families changed dramatically during lockdown with children spending almost 27 more hours each week on their screens, new research has found.

Kids were found to have spent more than a day of extra time each week on smartphones, digital tablets, computers and television during the national lockdowns in the first half of 2020.

The greatest changes were among children aged five to 12 years old.

Findings from the Our Life at Home study by researchers at Deakin University’s Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition also revealed parents spent an extra 14½ hours on their screens each week, compared with pre-lockdown.

IPAN’s Lauren Arundell said the increase in screen use, especially among young children, was particularly worrying as it could lead to long-term screen use habits that could negatively impact children’s health and wellbeing.

“Screen time has been associated with lower social development and social connections among children, so it is important that these longer periods of screen time do not become normalised behaviour,” Dr Arundell said.

She acknowledged both parents and children needed to spend more time on their screens during lockdown because of remote school and working from home requirements, social connections and, to a lesser extent, leisure.

Dr Arundell said parents and families needed strategies to help reduce screen time as activities returned to normal now more recent restrictions were easing.

“Organising face-to-face activities with families, schools and communities will help reduce the reliance on connecting via screens,” Dr Arundell said.

“Schools should also be supported to promote non-screen tasks for homework to reduce the reliance on the use of screens at home.”

Our Life at Home is a twoyear study looking at changes in behaviours and health

among Australians due to Covid-19 restrictions.

It has collected data from almost 2800 Australians aged between five and 75, who reported changes in physical activity, screen time and health and wellbeing in February 2020 before lockdown and during lockdown in April and May 2020.

Another trend to emerge during last year’s lockdown was the dramatic reduction in physical activity among children, with the biggest falls among adolescent boys.

Dr Arundell said children were 73 per cent less likely to meet moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) guidelines during the first stage of the lockdown compared to pre-pandemic.

“But adolescent males were 88 per cent less likely to meet combined moderate-to-vigorous intensity and muscle strengthening physical activity guidelines,” Dr Arundell said.

“Adults on the other hand were doing more exercise and were 26 per cent more likely to meet the MVPA guidelines.

“Given how important physical activity is for our physical development, mental health and academic performance, we now need to ensure physical activity is promoted in schools and communities to get Australian children and teenagers, particularly boys, active and moving again.”

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