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Screen use and its evolution in children aged 3 to 11: A survey in a priority education network
Sabrina Reffad1, Emmanuel Devouche2, Joëlle Provasi1
1Laboratoire CHArt (Cognition Humaine et Artificielle), EPHE-PSL, Campus Condorcet, 14 cours des Humanités, 93322 Aubervilliers cedex, France.
Insights
Children aged 3-11 in French priority education networks show high daily screen use, with increasing personal device ownership and smartphone adoption across age groups. This exposure exceeds recommendations, particularly in disadvantaged areas.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric digital media consumption
- Child development and technology impact
- Socioeconomic factors in early education
Background:
- Growing concern over excessive digital consumption by children.
- Limited research on screen time in French priority education networks.
- Early childhood digital exposure impacts development.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate screen exposure in elementary school children.
- Analyze the evolution of screen time with age.
- Focus on children in disadvantaged socioeconomic contexts.
Main Methods:
- Quantitative data from 366 children aged 3-12.
- Study conducted in a French priority education network.
- Data collected across three school cycles (3-6, 6-9, 9-12).
Main Results:
- 85.2% of children use screens daily, stable across age groups.
- Personal screen ownership increases with age, especially smartphones (6.6% to 57.1%).
- Television viewing during meals is high and more prevalent in single-parent households.
Conclusions:
- Screen use evolves with age, linked to autonomy and device ownership.
- Digital device adoption reflects screen portability and entertainment value.
- Early screen exposure in priority networks exceeds recommendations.
Background:
The digital world affects people, especially children, who are exposed to it from an early age. This consumption, excessive at times, and its effects on children's development are of growing concern to pediatric authorities and the public sector. However, few studies on digital use among children aged 3 to 11 have been conducted in priority education networks in France.
Objectives:
The aim of this study is to investigate screen exposure by elementary school children and its evolution with age in a disadvantaged socioeconomic context.
Methods And Settings:
Data on family structure and socio-professional category were collected from parents on paper. Quantitative data were collected from 366 children (divided into 3 cycles: aged 3-6, 6-9, and 9-12), in a school group located in a priority education network.
Results:
Among the 366 children interviewed, 85.2 % reported using screens daily, particularly after school in the evening. This proportion was quite stable across school cycles, ranging from 81 % to 88 %. Close to 50 % of children in Cycles 1 and 2 have their own screen, a proportion that rises to 79.1 % in Cycle 3 (p < .0001). Among significant developments across cycles, we observed an increase in smartphone ownership (from 6.6 % to 57.1 %, p < .0001). Watching television during meals was already high in Cycle 1 (77.9 %) and did not significantly change across cycles, but appeared significantly more in single-parent than in two-parent families (p = .006).
Conclusion:
We observed that the new uses in Cycle 2 is linked to children's autonomy, whereas it is linked to the ownership of a digital device in Cycle 3. The type of digital device children own at each cycle reflected both the intrinsically nomadic nature of screens and their fun dimension. Exposure to screens at an early age is steadily increasing, exceeding official recommendations, particularly in priority education networks.
