Abstract
Objectives
To examine the independent associations between television, computer, and video game use with physical violence in youth.
Methods
The study population consisted of a representative cross-sectional sample of 9,672 Canadian youth in grades 6–10 and a 1-year longitudinal sample of 1,861 youth in grades 9–10. The number of weekly hours watching television, playing video games, and using a computer was determined. Violence was defined as engagement in ≥2 physical fights in the previous year and/or perpetration of ≥2–3 monthly episodes of physical bullying. Logistic regression was used to examine associations.
Results
In the cross-sectional sample, computer use was associated with violence independent of television and video game use. Video game use was associated with violence in girls but not boys. Television use was not associated with violence after controlling for the other screen time measures. In the longitudinal sample, video game use was a significant predictor of violence after controlling for the other screen time measures.
Conclusions
Computer and video game use were the screen time measures most strongly related to violence in this large sample of youth.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by research agreements with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (operating grants: 2004MOP 84478 and 2004MEP-CHI-128223-C) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (contract: HT089-05205/001/SS) which funds the Canadian version of the World Health Organization—Health Behavior in School-Aged Children Survey (WHO-HBSC). The WHO-HBSC is a WHO/Euro collaborative study. International Coordinator of the 2005–2006 study: Candace Currie, University of Edinburgh, Scotland; Data Bank Manager: Oddrun Samdal, University of Bergen, Norway. This publication reports data solely from Canada (Principal Investigator: William Boyce). IJ was supported by a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and an Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation.
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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Janssen, I., Boyce, W.F. & Pickett, W. Screen time and physical violence in 10 to 16-year-old Canadian youth. Int J Public Health 57, 325–331 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-010-0221-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-010-0221-9