Screen-based sedentary behaviour of school-ages children in the Thulamela Municipality of Vhembe District Limpopo Province
type: CreativeWork
description: Background: Screen-based sedentary behaviour is an integral part of everyday life in the current information age. Engagements such as watching television, being online with smartphones, tablets and computers; including all types of interactive media consume most of the children’s time. Excessive screen time is already a global pandemic with negative implications for children’s health. Unquestionably, this Screen-based sedentary behaviour activity may have escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic, as people were required to be in lockdown and quarantine. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to assess the screen-based sedentary behaviour of school-aged children in the Thulamela Municipality of Vhembe District Limpopo Province. Methodology: A quantitative approach with descriptive cross-sectional designs was used. The questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. Simple random sampling was used to select 104 respondents from Grades 6 and Grade 7 from Thulamela Municipality, Vhembe District in the Limpopo province. The Statistical Package for the Social Science version 29 was used to analyse data descriptively. Results: The findings revealed that 100% accounting for every household reported to have a TV and more than 1 smartphone. The exposure and accessibility of technological devices has increased the prevalence of excessive screen time in children. 74% of the households had 3 to 10 gadgets available. 42.3% of the children own their own phone and 59.6% of those who reported that they do not own one borrow from others. At the top is parents at 58.7%, borrowing children their phones. Screen-based sedentary behaviour specifically on social media has become the prominent reason for excessive screen time. This consequently has accelerated the prevalence of screen-based sedentary behaviour. Alarming 30.8% of the children watched television normally whereas 62.5% of the children reported excessive use as they spent more than the average screen time. The findings also …
abstract: Background: Screen-based sedentary behaviour is an integral part of everyday life in the current information age. Engagements such as watching television, being online with smartphones, tablets and computers; including all types of interactive media consume most of the children’s time. Excessive screen time is already a global pandemic with negative implications for children’s health. Unquestionably, this Screen-based sedentary behaviour activity may have escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic, as people were required to be in lockdown and quarantine. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to assess the screen-based sedentary behaviour of school-aged children in the Thulamela Municipality of Vhembe District Limpopo Province. Methodology: A quantitative approach with descriptive cross-sectional designs was used. The questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. Simple random sampling was used to select 104 respondents from Grades 6 and Grade 7 from Thulamela Municipality, Vhembe District in the Limpopo province. The Statistical Package for the Social Science version 29 was used to analyse data descriptively. Results: The findings revealed that 100% accounting for every household reported to have a TV and more than 1 smartphone. The exposure and accessibility of technological devices has increased the prevalence of excessive screen time in children. 74% of the households had 3 to 10 gadgets available. 42.3% of the children own their own phone and 59.6% of those who reported that they do not own one borrow from others. At the top is parents at 58.7%, borrowing children their phones. Screen-based sedentary behaviour specifically on social media has become the prominent reason for excessive screen time. This consequently has accelerated the prevalence of screen-based sedentary behaviour. Alarming 30.8% of the children watched television normally whereas 62.5% of the children reported excessive use as they spent more than the average screen time. The findings also …
author: Luhalima, Murendeni
language: en
keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, Excessive screen time, Gadgets, School-age children, Screen-based sedentary behaviour
date published: 2024-05-17
date modified: 2026-07-27T21:57:59Z
provider: University of Venda
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Venda