Screen consumption, perception and family mediation during confinement due to the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

In the current multi-screen context, it is important to study the way in which parents mediate, manage and regulate their children's links with screens. The objective of this study is to describe the consumption of screens in primary schools in the city of Santa Clara during the confinement due to Covid-19, as well as the perception and family mediation regarding said consumption. An exploratory online study was carried out using a survey on the GoogleForms platform in the period from April to June 2021. The sample was composed of 127 parents of school-age children residing in Santa Clara, Cuba. The results showed that television, followed by cell phones and computers, were the most used screens in the surveyed group, and daily consumption ranged from 3-4 hours to 5-6 hours. Furthermore, 54.3% of parents perceived negative effects on their children as a consequence of consumption. In response to this increase in screen consumption, parents mainly used restrictive mediation, followed by shared mediation. A significant relationship was found between parents' perception of the amount of consumption with the frequency of consumption and the perception of negative effects from screens. The data obtained suggest that even when parents perceive negative effects as a consequence of screen consumption and restrictions are made to control their children's consumption, the frequency and number of hours spent are high.