Park, Jeong Hye, and Minjung Park. “Smartphone Use Patterns and Problematic Smartphone Use among Preschool Children.” PubMed Central (PMC), 2021.
The goal of this article was to identify smartphone use behaviors that are associated with problematic smartphone use (PSU) among preschoolers. Although the age at which youngsters begin using smartphones is dropping, little is known about their PSU patterns. The South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Information Society Agency performed a statewide survey on smartphone overdependence in 2017. They used a cross-sectional study design to examine the data collected. Binomial logistic regression was used to examine data from 1,378 preschoolers. These findings were obtained under STROBE (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology). This article is anticipated to be used to compare and determine the number of preschoolers using smartphones compared to other age groups. According to the findings of this research article, one in every five preschool-aged children who uses a smartphone is at risk for developing PSU. Young children’s PSU may be more closely linked to their caretakers than other age groups. Preventing PSU in preschoolers necessitates providing parents with information on the recommended daily screen time for children, patterns of smartphone usage related to PSU, alternate activities to smartphone use, and ways to improve children’s self-regulation when it comes to smartphone use. The article is limiting since it did not provide the criteria for choosing the preschoolers used in the study.
Rodrigues, Daniela, et al. “Social Inequalities in Traditional and Emerging Screen Devices among Portuguese Children: A Cross-Sectional Study.” BMC Public Health, vol. 20, no. 1, 2020, pp. 1–10. doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09026-4.
This article analyzes the amount of time children spend in front of a screen, including traditional and mobile devices, in pre-school and primary school (SEP). Children, for example, are frequently exposed to excessive screen time, but little research has examined old and new digital media usage among young children. This article is part of a larger study, “Inequalities in childhood obesity: the influence of Portugal’s socioeconomic crisis from 2009 to 2015,” which also includes other research. For the project mentioned above, a better understanding of the incidence of obesity in Portugal is the ultimate goal, as is an examination of a variety of probable behaviors connected to obesity, such as inactivity. Concerns have been voiced about the impact of screen usage on children’s physical and psychological well-being. Due to the lack of physical exercise and detrimental effects on food, studies have shown that spending more time in front of screens increases one’s chance of being overweight or obese. This article is anticipated to help provide the ability to critically analyze when and how young children utilize various screen media.
The screen-viewing behavior of the preschoolers was evaluated with the help of parent questionnaires that had been utilized in a comparable group. Questionnaires are the most common measure of screen time, particularly in young children. According to the research, a questionnaire with solid predictive validity can be a valuable tool that quantifies screen ownership and time in a way that is easy, quick, free of cost, and completely anonymous. This is especially true for younger children. In particular, parents were asked how much time their children spend each day, on average, watching television, playing electronic videogames, or using a personal computer, a tablet, or a smartphone.
Silva Piola, Thiago, et al. “Smartphones Applications to Stimulate Physical Activity in Brazilian Children and Adolescents.” SaĂşde e Pesquisa, vol. 13, no. 3, 2020, pp. 665– 673. EBSCOhost.
This article analyses the effectiveness of mobile applications (apps) in encouraging children and adolescents in Brazil to engage in more physical activity. Apps for the iTunes and PlayStore platforms in Portuguese were carefully searched for using the following terms: inactivity and sedentary lifestyles. The results of this search were compiled and presented. The Mobile App Rating Scale was used to assess the applications’ overall levels of quality (MARS). The taxonomy of behavior change approaches was used to determine whether or not there are techniques for changing behaviors. Using Kendall’s Tau correlation coefficient, researchers observed a strong correlation between the quality of the apps and the methods used to change people’s behavior. Four applications were considered since they satisfied all of the requirements and had a satisfactory level of quality. The programs shared only the feedback users provided regarding the methodologies used to switch behaviors. The applications were not evaluated based on recommendations to encourage physical activity.
Vaterlaus, J.Mitchell, and Dawn Tarabochia. “Adolescent Smartphone Acquisition: An Exploratory Qualitative Case Study with Late Adolescents and Their Parents.” Marriage & Family Review, vol. 57, no. 2, 2021, pp. 143–164. EBSCOhost.
This article aims to describe the timing of smartphone acquisition for children and adolescents as a topic that has garnered the public’s and researchers’ interest. To research how adolescents come to own smartphones, n = 8 parent-late teen dyads (totaling 16 individuals) from a single locality were sought for involvement. Late teens (age = 18; female n = 4; male n = 4) and their parents (age = 47; female n = 6; male n = 2) participated in in-depth interviews or online questionnaires with open-ended questions. The research in this article decided to use the qualitative case study approach.
When teenagers start using smartphones, a number of elements come into play, such as their age and maturity level, the advantages and disadvantages of the technology, and its impact on their social and personal lives. Most participants reported an appropriate age for adolescents to obtain a smartphone, although that age ranged from 13 to 15, with an average age of 15. The findings of this study lend credence to the argument that more research should be done to investigate the extent to which the age at which adolescents first obtain smartphones may affect the developmental consequences they experience as adolescents.
Camerini, Anne-Linda, Peter J. Schulz, and Anne-Marie Jeannet. “The Social Inequalities of Internet Access, Its Use, and the Impact on Children’s Academic Performance: Evidence from a Longitudinal Study in Switzerland.” New Media & Society, vol. 20, no. 7, 2018, pp. 2489-2508. doi.org/10.1177%2F1461444817725918
This article contributes to the current research on mobile digital divides by analyzing the increasing prevalence of smartphones among youngsters. This article analyzes the factors that influence the adoption of smartphones among youngsters, as well as the question of whether or not accessing the internet from a smartphone is related to particular usage behaviors, which may bridge or worsen usage gaps. This article is based on the results of a Net Children Go Mobile survey, which included 3500 participants aged 9 to 16 years old from seven European countries (Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Romania, and the UK). The findings suggest that there are digital disparities are still prevalent among children. They illustrate how social inequities connect with divisions in access, which in turn results in disparities in the activities that people participate in online. Children who climb to the top of the opportunities ladder also benefit from increased autonomy in their internet usage and have a long history of using it.