The Relationship Between Children’s Screen Time and the Time They Spend Engaging in Play: An Exploratory Study

Figures & data

Table 1. Child participants’ demographic information (n = 26).

Demographic variable	Frequency	(%)
Gender identity
Male	11	42.3
Female	15	57.7
Grade level attended
Grade 3 (8 to 9 years of age)	7	26.9
Grade 4 (9 to 10 years of age)	8	30.8
Grade 5 (10 to 11 years of age)	5	19.2
Grade 6 (11 to 12 years of age)	3	11.5
Grade 7 (12 to 13 years of age) *	3	11.5
Parent participant’s relationship to the child
Father	7	26.9
Mother	19	73.1
Child’s personal electronic device
Yes	18	69.2
No	8	30.8

Note. SD = standard deviation.

*only 12 year olds who attended Grade 7 were recruited into the study.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of subscales of children’s perceptions of their play (CPTP), parent and child versions of the children’s screen time use report (CSTUR), and children’s play scale (CPS) (n = 26).

					Percentiles
	Mean	Median (50 Q2)	SD	Range	25 (Q1)	75 (Q3)
Parent-reported CSTUR subscales (minutes)
Weekday Educational Screen Time	50.20	30.00	54.97	180.00	7.50	67.50
Weekend Educational Screen Time	15.00	0	51.23	255.00	0	0
Weekday Social Screen Time	35.50	30.00	40.08	150.00	0	60.00
Weekend Social Screen Time	52.20	30.00	67.98	255.00	0	77.50
Weekday Interactive Screen Time	52.90	50.00	76.20	375.00	0	60.00
Weekend Interactive Screen Time	96.00	90.00	72.33	360.00	60.00	120.00
Weekday Passive Screen Time	73.40	60.00	61.74	300.00	37.50	60.00
Weekend Passive Screen Time	134.28	120.00	72.08	288.00	75.00	180.00
Child-reported CSTUR subscales (minutes)
Weekday Educational Screen Time	99.89	61.00	85.40	300.00	30.00	153.75
Weekend Educational Screen Time	30.87	1.25	75.42	300.00	0	22.50
Weekday Social Screen Time	2.31	1.00	2.99	10.00	0	4.25
Weekend Social Screen Time	65.37	40.00	81.47	270.00	1.63	120.00
Weekday Interactive Screen Time	48.35	42.20	45.68	150.00	11.88	60.00
Weekend Interactive Screen Time	113.08	90.00	111.37	450.00	30.00	123.75
Weekday Passive Screen Time	78.75	60.00	66.10	300.00	28.75	120.00
Weekend Passive Screen Time	159.81	120.00	131.31	600.00	71.25	210.00
CPTP subscales
Child’s Choice	16.31	16.50	2.13	10.00	15.00	18.00
Social Play	12.65	13.00	1.83	7.00	11.00	14.00
Planned Activity	13.77	14.00	2.72	11.00	11.75	15.25
Engagement	12.12	12.00	1.86	8.00	11.00	14.00
Active Play	7.88	8.00	1.77	8.00	7.00	9.00
Free Time	10.19	11.00	2.04	7.00	8.75	12.00
CPS subscales (hours)
Total Hours Spent Playing	1194.87	1121.00	626.70	2347.50	708.75	1589.78
Total Hours Spent Playing Outdoors	664.36	630.00	459.18	1464.30	189.75	1075.06
Total Hours Spent Playing in Nature	227.23	195.25	218.00	715.50	28.50	411.00
Total Hours Spent Playing in Adventurous Places	360.33	269.75	303.14	1000.00	164.38	546.75

Note. CPTP = Children’s Perceptions of Their Play; CSTUR = Children’s Screen Time Use Report; CPS = Children’s Play Scale.

SD = standard deviation.

Table 3. Spearman’s rho correlation coefficients of subscales of children’s perceptions of their play (CPTP), parent-reported children’s screen time use report (CSTUR), child-reported children’s screen time use report (CSTUR), and children’s play scale (CPS) (n = 26).

		Weekday educational	Weekend educational	Weekday social	Weekend social	Weekday interactive	Weekend interactive	Weekday passive	Weekend passive
Child-reported CSTUR Subscales
CPTP Subscales	Child’s Choice	.102	−.059	−.161	−.181	−.090	−.068	.196	.119
	Social Play	−.028	−.062	−.677**	−.102	.033	−.037	.121	.229
	Planned Activity	−.133	.019	−.243	−.199	.199	.281	−.005	−.221
	Engagement	.054	.101	−.517**	−.231	.037	.166	−.207	−.091
	Active Play	−.191	.504**	.182	.015	−.484*	−.138	−.458*	−.213
	Free Time	.326	−.144	−.010	.037	.338	.368	.054	−.016
Parent-reported CSTUR Subscales
CPS Subscales	Total Hours Spent Playing	−.197	−.137	−.029	−.0.16	.179	.149	−.065	.293
	Total Hours Spent Playing Outdoors	−.057	−.164	−.011	−.030	.290	.254	−.193	−.015
	Total Hours Spent Playing in Nature	−.006	−.116	.244	.223	.242	.320	−.281	−.288
	Total Hours Spent Playing in Adventurous Places	−.056	.060	.338	.321	.324	.421*	−.222	−.213

Note. * = correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed); ** = correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

CPTP = Children’s Perceptions of Their Play; CSTUR = Children’s Screen Time Use Report; CPS = Children’s Play Scale.

Table 4. Linear regression analysis results for the CPTP, CPS, and CSTUR subscales (n = 26) (based on bootstrapped 1000 samples).

	Before bootstrapping					After bootstrapping^b
Models	B	SE	β	t	p	Bias	SE	p	BCa95% CI lower	BCa95% CI upper
DV: Social Play Adjusted R^2: .307 p = .002
(Constant)	13.472	.381		35.401	<.001	.010	.375	<.001	12.807	14.179
Child-reported CSTUR Weekday Social Screen Time	−.354	.102	−.579	−3.475	.002	−.014	.101	.002	−.614	−.215
DV: Engagement Adjusted R^2: .077 p = .092
(Constant)	12.600	.446		28.222	<.001	.007	.472	.001	11.570	13.556
Child-reported CSTUR Weekday Social Screen Time	−.210	.120	−.337	−1.754	.092	−.020	.106	.051	−.454	−.061
DV: Active Play Adjusted R^2: .556 p = <.001
(Constant)	9.142	.425		21.525	<.001	.097	.387	.001	8.124	10.590
Child-reported CSTUR Weekend Educational Screen Time	.011	.003	.487	3.633	.001	−.001	.011	.002	−.010	.016
Child-reported CSTUR Weekday Interactive Screen Time	−.019	.005	−.479	−3.542	.002	.001	.005	.001	−.030	−.007
Child-reported CSTUR Weekday Passive Screen Time	−.009	.004	−.336	−2.472	.022	−.002	.006	.065	−.022	−.005
DV: Total Hours Spent Playing in Adventurous Places Adjusted R^2: .023 p = .218
(Constant)	283.442	84.578		3.351	.003	−4.984	79.068	.003	154.185	414.143
Parent-reported CSTUR Weekend Interactive Screen Time	.680	.538	.250	1.264	.218	.116	.698	.258	−.365	2.643

Note. DV = dependent variable; adjusted R² = adjusted R squared; B = unstandardized beta coefficient; SE = coefficients standard error; β = standardized coefficients beta; t = t test statistic; p = significance; BCa = bias-corrected and accelerated; CPTP = Children’s Perceptions of Their Play; CSTUR = Children’s Screen Time Use Report; CPS = Children’s Play Scale.

Data availability statement

Data for this study is not available to be released to prospective readers due to ethics committee restrictions. Given the small sample size it is possible that individual participants would be identified. Consent from participants was not received to make the dataset for this study publicly accessible.