Analysis of the prevalence of screen time behavior among the local and migrant children in Beijing and its influencing factors

Objective To compare and analyze the prevalence of screen time behavior among the local and migrant children in Beijing during weekends and weekdays and its influencing factors, and to provide reference for follow-up health education and prevention.Methods Convenience sampling method was used to select 621 students of grade 1 in the 2014-2015 academic year from 4 common public middle schools in Haidian District of Beijing, and questionnaire was performed on them.Results On average, screen time of participants spent on weekday and weekend were 1.04 h/d and 2.56 h/d, respectively.Participants spent more screen time during weekends than weekdays, and spent more than recommended 2 hours per day of screen time on weekends.Migrant children (weekday: 1.19 h/d, weekend: 2.81 h/d) were disadvantaged in terms of screen time compared to local children (weekday: 0.88 h/d, weekend: 2.31 h/d) in Beijing.During weekdays, migrant children with poor self-regulation had a higher risk of non-complicance with screen time recommendations than those with good self-regulation (OR = 2.21, 95% CI = 1.12-4.36), no matter of weekdays or weekends, local children with less family support were less likely to meet recommended screen time (weekday: OR = 3.42, 95%CI = 1.32-8.89; weekend: OR = 2.74, 95%CI = 1.49-5.03).Conclusion Both migrant and local children in Beijing are at risk for excessive screen time.Given that factors significantly associated with behaviors for local and migrant students were different, targeted health education and interventions should be applied.