Screen Time And Psychopathology Symptom Among Adolescents In China

Objectives The aim of the research was to describe the prevalence of screen timeand psychopathology symptoms among Chinese adolescents, and investigate whetherscreen time is associated with sociodemographic factors, and furthermore, to examinewhether screen time in weekday or weekend has more correlated relationship betweenpsychopathology symptoms among adolescents.Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted in middle schools of four cities inChina. In October of2011, all participants from4cities were instructed to self-reportinformations on sociodemographic data, screen time and psychopathology symptoms.A total of13817valid questionnaires were retained for analysis. The mean age of thestudents was14.81years （SD=1.80）, and7173students were female. The Pearsonchi-square test were used to compare the proportions of the independent variablesversus dependent variables. Logistic regression analyses were used to analyze thepossible factors affecting screen time, and furthermore explore the effects of screentime on adolescents’ psychological problems.Results15.1%of students were exposed to screen time>2h on a weekday, butapproximated58.5%of students were>2h on weekend.The risk factors of adolescents whose screen time>2h on weekday were Chongqing,males, junior school student, lower education lever of mother, self-reported poorerexpectations of parents, perceived obesity, smoking and alcohol intake. And the riskfactors of adolescents whose screen time>2h on weekend were Shenyang, males,senior high school students, lower education lever of father, lower education lever ofmother, better perceived socioeconomic status, self-reported better academic performance, self-reported medium expectations of parents, perceived obesity,non-smoking and alcohol intake.The prevalence of psychopathology symptoms were17.5%, and the prevalence ofemotional symptoms, behavioral symptoms, social adaptation problems were25.8%,38.5%,14.5%. After adjusting on potential confounders, such as region, sex, grade,only child, perceived socioeconomic status, parental education, self-reportedacademic performance, self-reported expectations of parents, perceived weight status,smoking and alcohol intake, adolescents who had higher screen time on weekday hadodds ratios of1.59（1.42-1.78）,1.57（1.41-1.74）,1.43（1.29-1.57） and1.69（1.49-1.92）for likelihood of being psychopathology symptom, emotional symptoms, behavioralsymptoms and social adaptation problems. And screen time on weekend had oddsratios of1.90（1.74-2.08）,1.90（1.74-2.07）,1.97（1.83-2.12） and1.77（1.59-1.97） forlikelihood of being psychopathology symptom, emotional symptoms, behavioralsymptoms and social adaptation problems. And furthermore, after adjusting onpotential confounders, the group of both screen time on weekday and weekend were>2h·d^-1had highest odds ratios for likelihood of being psychopathology symptom（OR=2.52,95%CI:2.20-2.89）, emotional symptoms （OR=2.50,95%CI:2.21-2.85）,behavioral symptoms （OR=2.32,95%CI:2.07-2.61） and social adaptation problems（OR=2.53,95%CI:2.18-2.95）.Conclusions It is still far from being satisfactory about the situation of screen timeamong Chinese adolescents. Higher screen time could increase psychopathologysymptoms among Chinese adolescents.