Nowhere to Go and Nothing to Do but Sit? Youth Screen Time and the Association With Access to Neighborhood Destinations

Hayley Christian, Stephen R. Zubrick, Matthew Knuiman, Andrea Nathan, Sarah Foster, Karen Villanueva, Billie Giles-Corti

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)
440 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

With not much to do in their neighborhood, youth may spend more time in the home engaged in screen-based activities. Screen time data from 2,790 youth in the Western Australian Health and Wellbeing Survey were linked to objectively measured count of types of neighborhood “services,” “convenience goods,” “public open space,” and “youth-related” destinations. On average, youth accrued 801 mean min/week screen time and had access to seven different types of neighborhood destinations. A larger number of different types of neighborhood “youth-related,” “service,” and “total” destinations were associated with less screen time (all p ≤.05). A significant gender interaction was observed. Girls with access to ≥12 youth-related destinations had 109 fewer mean min/week screen time, compared with girls with 0 to 3 youth-related destinations. Providing alternatives to screen use by ensuring access to a variety of neighborhood places for structured and unstructured activities may be an important strategy for decreasing youth screen time.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)84-108
Number of pages25
JournalEnvironment and Behavior
Volume49
Issue number1
Early online date21 Sept 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2017

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