JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

There is a strong association between increased mobile device use and worse dietary habits, sleep outcomes, poor academic performance in children. Self-report or parent-proxy report of children's screen time has been the most common method of measuring screen time, which may be imprecise or biased.

Objective:

The objective of this study is to assess the feasibility of measuring child screen time on mobile devices by using the Family Level Assessment of Screen use (FLASH)-Mobile approach, an innovative and objective method which leverages existing features of the Android platform.

Methods:

The pilot study consisted of two lab-based observation feasibility studies and two home-based feasibility studies in the U.S. Forty-eight parent-child dyads. Parent and 6-11 year old child. Child had to have their own, or a shared Android deice. The lab-based studies included series of tasks while using the mobile device and watching TV. Video-recordings were coded by staff for a gold-standard comparison. The home-based studies instructed parent-child dyads to use their mobile device as they typically use it over three days. Parents reviewed use logs at the end of the study and completed an exit interview.

Results:

The final version of the FLASH-Mobile approach resulted in user identification compliance rates of over 90% for smartphones and over 80% for tablets. For lab-based studies, a mean agreement of 73.6% was achieved compared to the gold standard in capturing the target child’s mobile use.

Conclusions:

The FLASH-Mobile approach offers an important new research approach to measure children's use of mobile devices more accurately across several days, even when the child shares the device with other family members. With additional enhancement and validation studies, the approach can significantly advance the measurement of mobile device use among young children. Clinical Trial: Not applicable.