Screen-based sedentary behaviour of school-ages children in the Thulamela Municipality of Vhembe District Limpopo Province
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 showed normal use of 26,9% of children watching movies using a laptop/computer and 19.2% reported excessive use. The three most used social media platforms were YouTube, WhatsApp and TikTok. About 54.8% of children reported excessive use of YouTube, 49% of WhatsApp and 58.7% of TikTok. The trajectory of screen based sedentary behaviour is indicative of awareness campaigns to alert parents and psychoeducation about the average normal time in order to eliminate excessive screen time among children which has negative impact. Monitoring and regulating screen time among children by parents and guardians is critical to reduce the time that children spend on the screen from various gadgets.
COVID-19 pandemic, Excessive screen time, Gadgets, School-age children, Screen-based sedentary behaviour
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