Undergraduate Honors Theses

Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Degree Name

BS

Department

Nursing

Faculty Mentor

Leigh Minchew

Abstract

Screen time usage is a major factor leading to negative behavioral and health consequences in young children. Screen time also affects sleep, with prior research showing a significant association between screen time, particularly at bedtime, and reduced sleep duration and increased sleep problems. The initial aim of this research was to measure and attempt to increase, through an educational intervention, the knowledge, perceived self-efficacy, and confidence of study participants/primary caregivers with regard to limiting the bedtime screen use of their preschoolers with the goal of health promotion. It was intended to be a quantitative, quasi-experimental, multi-site, pre- post-intervention case study. However, because of study limitations which included issues with recruitment and poor participation (part of which is attributable to COVID-19-related restrictions), the research was adapted into a quantitative, observational descriptive design study. The participant pool was comprised of five preschool facilities at various locations across southwest Alabama. An initial survey was prepared for caregivers of preschoolers at the five study sites. This survey included demographic questions, questions about the child’s sleep habits and screen use, knowledge-based questions aimed at obtaining participant knowledge about national recommendations for sleep and screen time use, and self-efficacy and self-confidence questions. The intention was to deliver an educational intervention to be followed by a second administration of the survey to measure any differences in pre- and post-intervention knowledge, self-efficacy, and self-confidence levels. The educational intervention was prepared and delivered to the study sites. Because of limitations, the study results were inconclusive with regard to the a priori research questions and hypothesis. As to the post-hoc research questions, quantifiable data was vi obtained about the knowledge, perceived self-efficacy, and self-confidence of caregivers of preschoolers in the study pool. This data confirmed a portion of the post-hoc hypothesis in that knowledge of national health recommendations as to sleep and screen time use for preschoolers would be low among caregivers of preschool children in southwest Alabama. While knowledge was low, participants’ perceived self-efficacy was high, a phenomenon which may be explained by the Dunning-Kruger effect.

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