Objective: To examine whether parental screenviewing,
parental attitudes or access to media
equipment were associated with the screen-viewing of
6-year-old to 8-year-old children.
Design: Cross-sectional survey.
Setting: Online survey.
Main outcome: Parental report of the number of
hours per weekday that they and, separately, their 6-
year-old to 8-year-old child spent watching TV, using a
games console, a smart-phone and multiscreen
viewing. Parental screen-viewing, parental attitudes and
pieces of media equipment were exposures.
Results: Over 75% of the parents and 62% of the
children spent more than 2 h/weekday watching TV.
Over two-thirds of the parents and almost 40% of the
children spent more than an hour per day multiscreen
viewing. The mean number of pieces of media
equipment in the home was 5.9 items, with 1.3 items
in the child’s bedroom. Children who had parents who
spent more than 2 h/day watching TV were over 7.8
times more likely to exceed the 2 h threshold. Girls and
boys who had a parent who spent an hour or more
multiscreen viewing were 34 times more likely to also
spend more than an hour per day multiscreen viewing.
Media equipment in the child’s bedroom was
associated with higher TV viewing, computer time and
multiscreen viewing. Each increment in the parental
agreement that watching TV was relaxing for their child
was associated with a 49% increase in the likelihood
that the child spent more than 2 h/day watching TV.
Conclusions: Children who have parents who engage
in high levels of screen-viewing are more likely to
engage in high levels of screen-viewing. Access to
media equipment, particularly in the child’s bedroom,
was associated with higher levels of screen-viewing.
Family-based strategies to reduce screen-viewing and
limit media equipment access may be important ways
to reduce child screen-viewing
