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Objective: To examine screentime behaviors and beliefs, barriers to limiting screentime, and methods for coping with barriers of parents of preschool children. Design, Setting and Participants: Parents of preschool children (2 to 5 years old) completed surveys (n1⁄4133); a subset participated in focus group interviews (English-speakers1⁄416; Spanish-speakers1⁄414). Constant data comparison occurred concurrently with data collection to establish when data saturation was reached. Outcome Measures and Analysis: Three trained researchers independently conducted content analyses of data to identify themes and trends. Results: Parents reported their children spent 2.4 1.7SD hours daily watching television, with no significant differences in this time occurring among parent education levels, language spoken, or parent age. Parents were divided on the importance of limiting screen time and unaware of recommendations for acceptable amounts. Parents reported they used television as a ‘‘babysitter’’ and to calm their children. Some felt children’s television viewing needed to be monitored because TV is commercialized and can lead to ‘‘unacceptable behavior,’’ ‘‘obesity,’’ or ‘‘bad habits’’ as children imitate what they watch. Some parents believed that food/beverage advertisements could influence their children. Barriers to limiting television included lack of affordable alternate activities, convenience, inclement weather, parent fatigue, and desire to have time away from children to complete other activities. To overcome barriers to limiting screentime, parents found alternate activities for children, removed TVs from children’s bedrooms, set daily routines/screentime limits, and set an example by not watching television themselves. Conclusions and Implications: Obesity prevention interventions should encourage parents to limit screentime and provide costeffective alternative activities and convenient strategies for limiting children’s screentime. Funding: USDA. |
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