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Screen Time at Home and School among Low-Income Children Attending Head Start

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Abstract

Objective

To describe the patterns of screen viewing at home and school among low-income preschool-aged children attending Head Start and identify factors associated with high home screen time in this population. Few studies have examined both home and classroom screen time, or included computer use as a component of screen viewing.

Methods

Participants were 2221 low-income preschool-aged children in the United States studied in the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) in spring 2007. For 5 categories of screen viewing (television, video/DVD, video games, computer games, other computer use), we assessed children’s typical weekday home (parent-reported) and classroom (teacher-reported) screen viewing in relation to having a television in the child’s bedroom and sociodemographic factors.

Results

Over half of children (55.7 %) had a television in their bedroom, and 12.5 % had high home screen time (>4 h/weekday). Television was the most common category of home screen time, but 56.6 % of children had access to a computer at home and 37.5 % had used it on the last typical weekday. After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, children with a television in their bedroom were more likely to have high home screen time [odds ratio = 2.57 (95 % confidence interval: 1.80–3.68)]. Classroom screen time consisted almost entirely of computer use; 49.4 % of children used a classroom computer for ≥1 h/week, and 14.2 % played computer games at school ≥5 h/week.

Conclusions

In 2007, one in eight low-income children attending Head Start had >4 h/weekday of home screen time, which was associated with having a television in the bedroom. In the Head Start classroom, television and video viewing were uncommon but computer use was common.

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Acknowledgments

The source of the original collection and analysis of the FACES data bears no responsibility for their further analysis or interpretation.

Funding Source

This work was supported in part by grant R01DK088913 from the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, The Ohio State University, 336 Cunz Hall, 1841 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Erica N. Fletcher, Alexis J. Marino & Sarah E. Anderson

  2. Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA

    Erica N. Fletcher

  3. Center for Obesity Research and Education, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Robert C. Whitaker

Authors
  1. Erica N. Fletcher
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  2. Robert C. Whitaker
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  3. Alexis J. Marino
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Correspondence to Sarah E. Anderson.

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Author Contributions

Erica N. Fletcher1,2, MPH contributed to the design and conceptualization of the research, carried out the initial analyses, and drafted the manuscript.

Robert C. Whitaker3, MD, MPH conceptualized the research, contributed to the interpretation of the analyses, and critically reviewed and revised the manuscript for important intellectual content.

Alexis J. Marino1, MPH contributed to the analysis of the data, and reviewed and revised the manuscript.

Sarah E. Anderson1, PhD conceptualized the research, designed and interpreted the analyses, and critically reviewed and revised the manuscript for important intellectual content.

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Fletcher, E.N., Whitaker, R.C., Marino, A.J. et al. Screen Time at Home and School among Low-Income Children Attending Head Start. Child Ind Res 7, 421–436 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-013-9212-8

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