Association between screen-time and school performance of secondary school children in Karachi, Pakistan

Background Electronic media are playing a negative role in people’s lives and yet people are unaware of the hazardous effect.

Aim To show that screen-time of >1 hour had detrimental associations with school performance.

Method A population-based, cross-sectional survey of 363 students, mean age 14.2 years (grades 5–8), from both government and private-sector schools in Karachi was conducted. A total of 363 students (210 males [57.9%] and 153 females [42.1%]) were included in the study. Of these students, 193 (53.2%) belonged to government schools and 173 (46.8%) to private schools. A questionnaire form was filled in. Weekday, weekend television, and video game screen-time was looked at. The main outcome was self-report of school performance (grades A, B, and C). Ordinal logistic regression analysis was used to test the independent effects of each variable, adjusting for demographics, child personality, and parenting style.

Results Television content measurement showed that 69 (19%) students watched sports channels regularly while 30 (8.3%) and 3 (0.8%) watched educational and action programmes, respectively. The viewers of entertainment TV programmes (268 [73.8%]) and news programmes (159 [43.8%]) were in the majority. In terms of school grades, 154 students (42.4%) attained grade A, 180 students (49.6%) scored grade B, and 29 (8%) obtained grade C. Data showed no association between increased screen-time of ≤1 hour (weekdays as well as weekends) with poor school performance (P=0.46 and P=0.58, respectively).

Conclusion Screen-time of ≤1 hour does not have any detrimental associations with poor school performance.