ArticleBMJ open2021
From screen time to the digital level of analysis: a scoping review of measures for digital media use in children and adolescents.
Article in BMJ open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 65 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- The Impact of Sleep Loss on Screen Time in Children: Secondary Analyses of a Randomised Crossover Trial Using Objective Measures of Screen Time.Pediatric obesity · 2025Trial
- Artificial intelligence interaction is not equivalent to social interaction: Rethinking artificial intelligence-mediated digital exposure in early childhood.Pediatric investigation · 2026Review
- Comparison of Capturing Children's Technology Use Using Wearable Camera and Fixed Room Video: Experimental Laboratory Study.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2026Article
- TikTok, teens and mental health: quantifying algorithmic exposure to harmful content.Irish journal of medical science · 2026Article
- Digital media use among school-aged dual language learners in Chinese American families: Links to socioecological factors and children's oral language proficiencies.Developmental psychology · 2026Article
- Understanding Youth Online Experiences and Mental Health: Development and Validation of the Digital Activity and Feelings Inventory (DAFI).International journal of methods in psychiatric research · 2025Article
- Problematic Digital Technology Use Measures in Children Aged 0 to 6 Years: Scoping Review.JMIR mental health · 2025Article
- Will restricting the age of access to social media reduce mental illness in Australian youth?The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry · 2025Review
- From dusk to dawn: examining how adolescents engage with digital media using objective measures of screen time in a repeated measures study.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Observational
- Article
- Observational
- The Effect of Prebedtime Behaviors on Sleep Duration and Quality in Children: Protocol for a Randomized Crossover Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2024Article
- Measurement Method Options to Investigate Digital Screen Technology Use by Children and Adolescents: A Narrative Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Editorial: Multilevel social determinants of individual and family well-being: national and international perspectives.Frontiers in epidemiology · 2024Article
- Identification and characterization of screen use trajectories from late childhood to adolescence in a US-population based cohort study.Preventive medicine reports · 2023Article
- The Silent Victims of the Pandemic: Children During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Crisis.Turkish archives of pediatrics · 2023Article
- A Scoping Review of Digital Well-Being in Early Childhood: Definitions, Measurements, Contributors, and Interventions.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Socioeconomic Inequality in Screen Time, Phone, and Tablet Use among Iranian Adolescents: Results of A National Study.Medical journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran · 2023Article
- Feasibility of Measuring Screen Time, Activity, and Context Among Families With Preschoolers: Intensive Longitudinal Pilot Study.JMIR formative research · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
19 authors at 13 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThis scoping review aims to facilitate psychometric developments in the field of digital media usage and well-being in young people by (1) identifying core concepts in the area of "screen time" and digital media use in children, adolescents, and young adults, (2) synthesising existing research paradigms and measurement tools that quantify these dimensions, and (3) highlighting important areas of need to guide future measure development.
designA scoping review of 140 sources (126 database, 14 grey literature) published between 2014 and 2019 yielded 162 measurement tools across a range of domains, users, and cultures. Database sources from Ovid MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Scopus were extracted, in addition to grey literature obtained from knowledge experts and organisations relevant to digital media use in children. To be included, the source had to: (1) be an empirical investigation or present original research, (2) investigate a sample/target population that included children or young persons between the ages of 0 and 25 years of age, and (3) include at least one assessment method for measuring digital media use. Reviews, editorials, letters, comments and animal model studies were all excluded. MEASURES: Basic information, level of risk of bias, study setting, paradigm, data type, digital media type, device, usage characteristics, applications or websites, sample characteristics, recruitment methods, measurement tool information, reliability and validity.
resultsSignificant variability in nomenclature surrounding problematic use and criteria for identifying clinical impairment was discovered. Moreover, there was a paucity of measures in key domains, including tools for young children, whole families, disadvantaged groups, and for certain patterns and types of usage.
conclusionThis knowledge synthesis exercise highlights the need for the widespread development and implementation of comprehensive, multi-method, multilevel, and multi-informant measurement suites.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.