THE FREQUENCY OF USING SCREEN-BASED MEDIA AMONG CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS AND ITS IMPACT ON HEALTH-RELATED BEHAVIORS

Abstract

Screen-based media are becoming an increasingly important part of life for today’s children and adolescents. That is why our purpose was to review the literature published within the past 10 years regarding the use and impact of TV, video game, and computer /Internet on youth health outcomes including how they affect their psychosocial outcomes and physical well-being. Systematic literature search for and analysis of a variety of media used by children and adolescents from a public health perspective was done. Literature was reviewed from May to July 2014. Children and adolescents spend a great deal of time using screen-based media. This high overall electronic media use was associated with poorer behavior and health status. A large part of this younger generation’s social and emotional development is occurring while on the Internet and on cell phones. Screen-based media use was mutually associated, and the plural use of these media had stronger associations with unhealthy lifestyles and subjective health complaints. Various physical complaints, like obesity, backache and headache, neck-shoulder pain, and sleep disorders were also found significant. Children and adolescents are consumers, but also they are producers of social media. Public health professionals and society as a whole should increase health education on screen-based media consumption, by stimulating reasonable use and teaching youth to be critical. Parents can be most helpful if they understand the core issues and have strategies for dealing with them.

Keywords

• health status
• lifestyles
• internet