ArticleEuropean child & adolescent psychiatry2021
Sleep, screen time and behaviour problems in preschool children: an actigraphy study.
Article in European child & adolescent psychiatry, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Evaluation of the association between excessive screen use, sleep patterns and behavioral and cognitive aspects in preschool population. A systematic review.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Association of Screen Time With Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior Problems in Children 12 Years or Younger: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.JAMA psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Beyond screen use duration: the role of evening TV-timing on sleep in preschool-aged children.Frontiers in sleep · 2026Article
- Article
- Sleep duration moderates association between screen time and emotional and behavioural problems in young children.World journal of pediatrics : WJP · 2025Article
- Sleep Duration and Screen Time in Young Children with Mild Language Delays.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Loneliness mediates the association between sleep deficiency and fighting in school-aged adolescents: a 2-year longitudinal study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Digital Media Use and Sleep Disturbances in Children: Insights From a Cross-Sectional Study.Cureus · 2025Article
- Actigraphy-assessed sleep duration and quality and executive function in a sample of typically developing preschoolers.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- Excessive screen time and problem behaviours among school-age children in Fujian, China: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- The Chain Mediating Effects of Parent-Child Conflict and Screen Time on the Relationship Between Parental Phubbing and Problem Behaviors in Preschoolers.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Loneliness and nervousness mediated the longitudinal association between sleep disorders and cyberbullying victimization in school-aged adolescents.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Digital screen exposure and emotional symptoms in preschool children: mediation by parent-child relationship and moderation by peer relationships.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Article
- Adherence to the WHO physical activity, screen time and sleep guidelines and associations with socio-demographic factors among Ethiopian preschool children: The SUNRISE study.Journal of activity, sedentary and sleep behaviors · 2024Article
- Association between sleep duration and serum neurofilament light chain levels among adults in the United States.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Examining the Bidirectional Associations Between Sleep Duration, Screen Time, and Internalizing Symptoms in the ABCD Study.The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine · 2024Article
- Maternal Perceptions of Evidence-Based Early Childhood Sleep Health Promotion Recommendations: An Explanatory Sequential Study.Behavioral sleep medicine · 2024Article
- Post-PICU sleep efficiency and quality of life in infants and toddlers with acquired brain injury.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2024Article
- Association between Children's Difficulties, Parent-Child Sleep, Parental Control, and Children's Screen Time: A Cross-Sectional Study in Japan.Pediatric reports · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Inadequate sleep and excessive exposure to media screens have both been linked to poorer mental health in youth. However, the ways in which these interact to predict behaviour problems have yet to be examined using objective sleep measurement. The lack of objective evidence for these relationships in young children has recently been defined by the World Health Organization (2019) as a gap in the field. We thus aimed to test the interacting effects of screen exposure and objectively measured sleep on behaviour problems in the preschool age. A total of 145 children aged 3-to-6-years participated in this cross-sectional study. Sleep was assessed objectively using actigraphy for 1-week, and subjectively using parent-reported daily sleep diaries. Parents reported the child's daily duration of screen exposure, and completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Results showed that actigraphic sleep duration, timing and efficiency were associated with screen exposure. The link between screen time and behaviour problems was moderated by sleep duration, as it was significant only for children with sleep duration of 9.88 h or less per night. Sleep duration also moderated the relation between screen time and externalizing-but not internalizing-problems. Hence, the combination of increased screen exposure and decreased sleep duration may be particularly adverse for child mental health. While these key relationships should be further examined in longitudinal and experimental investigations, our findings shed light on their complexity, underscoring the importance of the moderating role of sleep.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.