EPPOC (Écrans en pédopsychiatrie en Occitanie au temps du COVID) : enquête en juillet 2020 sur l’utilisation des écrans chez les enfants suivis en pédopsychiatrie en Occitanie avant et pendant confinement (17 mars au 11 mai) : résultats du volet adolescents

Introduction

The adolescent part of the EPPOC survey (flash survey in July 2020 in outpatient and hospital child psychiatry state departments in Occitania) documents the point of view of adolescents followed in pedopsychiatric settings on their screen use, and the impact of the first lockdown (March to May 2020) on this variable.

Results

Eighty-four adolescents answered (mean age 14.05, 42 boys). Their answers were fractioned into two age groups (58.3% in middle school, and 41.7% in high school). In total, 90.5% of adolescents are equipped with mobile phones and 88.1% with 3 to 5 types of screens. Half of them (55.7%) have a screen in their bedroom. Intensive use (> 4 h/day) affects 32.5% of them on weekdays, 51.8% on weekends, and during lockdown (DL), these figures increase to 65.1% in both weekdays and weekends. Before lockdown (BL), three quarters of the adolescents use their devices in the afternoon or in the evening, while they use them more in the morning and before going to sleep DL. Using their devices, they mainly watch videos or listen to music (91.2% of high school students). Social networks mainly regards high school students (79.4 vs. 45.8% of middle school students). A quarter of the adolescents acknowledge the negative effects of screens on sleep and mood, and their positive effects on social relationships. About a third (27.7%) declare having been exposed to shocking content. 62.2% think they control the time they spend on their screens (47.5% DL), and 60.7% think that their parents do not set any screen time limitation. What seems to determine excessive screen use is the possession of a greater number of screens, the presence of screens in the bedroom and the lack of parental limitation. The statistic association profiles that seem to stand out from the multivariate analysis are “use of social networks/girl/ > 8 hours of use per day/high school” and “no social networks/ < 1 hour/boy/college”.

Discussion

In the main trends, screen equipment and screen use in our adolescent population are comparable to national and international results. However, the heterogeneity of conceptual frameworks and investigation methods does not allow thorough comparative reasoning. Only the 4 hours screen use per day cut off to define “intensive use” seems to achieve consensus today, due to the harmful effects observed on physical and psychological health parameters on young populations. Data on screen use among children with various diagnoses (ADHD, ASD, depression, etc.) emerge in the international literature, and would usefully lay the foundations of a future qualitative study.