Child and Teenage Screen Exposure: Recommendations, Limits, and Controversies in the Context of Enforced Social Distancing. A Qualitative Study.

Abstract

Introduction: screen use during childhood and potential harm concerns have increased in recent years. Advice not to allow more than two hours of screen use per day was contested during the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary purpose of this research was to probe the opinions and attitudes of professionals regarding the use of screens and to understand how these changed during the pandemic.

Materials and methods: this exploratory study, with a qualitative approach and theory-based strategy, was made between 2020 and 2021, and involved the participation of 23 professionals (pediatricians and general practitioners) in four focus groups.The recorded material was analyzed for content interpretation. The analysis included generating codes that were grouped into five thematic areas.

Results: the resulting axes were: 1) the issue of screens in the outpatient practice of healthy children; 2) perception of harm; 3) perception of benefits; 4) screens in times of Preventive and Compulsory Social Isolation (ASPO, for its acronym in Spanish); and 5) contradictory thoughts and actions on the use of screens.

Discussion: when making recommendations regarding screen exposure, the interviewees' intuition predominated over available scientific evidence. They recognized that the ASPO context highlighted some of the benefits associated with the connectivity provided by these devices.

Conclusion: our results show that awareness of screen displays is becoming increasingly neutral concerning the trade-off between their risks and benefits, prompting practitioners to become more flexible in their recommendations.