The time children and youth spend with screen-based media is rapidly increasing, while their time engaged in outdoor play and physical activity is decreasing. This study was designed to address this concern.
Both “push and pull forces” contribute to the increased screen use in youth. Push forces – such as suburban sprawl, a lack of neighborhood destinations for youth, high levels of traffic, and reduced home yard space -- make time spent indoors using screens desirable or more likely. Pull forces – such as the widespread availability of screen-based devices, parental concerns about traffic safety and stranger danger, and youths' preference for online communication with peers – tend to pull youth indoors and away from the outdoors.
The specific aim of this study was to examine the relationship between access to neighborhood destinations and youth screen time and to determine whether these relationships vary according to gender, age, and size of neighborhood activity space. Data for this study included screen time information obtained from surveys by the Western Australian Government Department of Health pertaining to 2,790 youth, age 5 to 17. This screen time data -- reported as number of minutes per week -- were linked to objectively measured counts of different types of neighborhood destinations, including services (shops, conveniences), public open space (such as parks, natural areas, and school grounds), youth-related destinations (library, rec center, craft store, etc.) and transit. Neighborhood destinations were generated at 1,600-meter and 400-meter neighborhood activity spaces, based on the distance from each young person's home. The 1,600-meter neighborhood area represents a 20-min walk from home for adolescents, while the 400-meter neighborhood area was used to represent a more relevant walkable activity space for young children.
On average, youth devoted 801 minutes per week to screen time. There was less screen time in neighborhoods with a larger number of different types of destinations. This was especially notable for girls. Girls with access to a high number of different types of youth-related neighborhood destinations participated in almost 2 hours less weekly screen time than girls with little or no access to such destinations. These findings about girls are especially important, in that girls tend to be less physically active than boys, particularly as they age. There were no significant relationships between screen time and access to neighborhood destinations for boys, and no significant age effects for boys or girls. Public open spaces were not specifically related to screen time use.
This study suggests that increasing access to a variety of neighborhood places for structured and unstructured activities may be an effective strategy for decreasing youth screen time.
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