Revision sheet: Screen Time and Physical Activity

📋 Course Outline

1. Digital Exposure Among University Students
2. Health Effects of Screen Use
3. Sleep Barriers and Student Well-Being
4. Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior
5. Screen Time–Activity Relationship
6. Study Objectives and Research Questions
7. Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks
8. Scope, Significance, and Key Terms
9. Research Design and Participants
10. Data Collection, Analysis, and Ethics

📖 1. Digital Exposure Among University Students

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Screen Time : The total number of hours a student spends per day using digital devices such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets for academic tasks, social media, gaming, and other recreational activities.

📝 Essential Points

★ Must-know

• University students use smartphones, laptops, tablets, and other digital devices for learning materials, online classes, research, communication, academic requirements, entertainment, social networking, gaming, and information consumption.

• University students worldwide often spend eight to ten hours per day using screens, with higher use during weekends and examination periods.

Further detail

• DataReportal (2024) reported that Filipino students spend more than nine hours per day using screens, among the highest averages in Southeast Asia.

💡 Memory Hook

More screens, less movement

📖 2. Health Effects of Screen Use

📝 Essential Points

★ Must-know

• Prolonged screen use is associated with sedentary lifestyles, reduced physical activity, sleep disruption, weight gain, and increased risk of chronic illnesses.

• Excessive screen use among college students has been linked to sedentary lifestyles, weight gain, musculoskeletal problems, mental fatigue, and reduced face-to-face social interaction.

Further detail

• Teenagers with four or more hours of daily screen time were more likely to experience poor sleep habits, mental fatigue, anxiety, and depression; approximately 27% had anxiety symptoms and 26% had depression symptoms during the previous two weeks.

• Prolonged sitting and low-energy activities can affect metabolic and mental processes independently of a person's overall physical activity level.

💡 Memory Hook

Screens can affect sleep, body, and mind

📖 3. Sleep Barriers and Student Well-Being

📝 Essential Points

★ Must-know

• The study identified four sleep-barrier groups:

  • School/Screens Barriers affecting 62% of students
  • home-noise-and-screens barriers
  • high barriers across domains with poorer mental health
  • and few barriers with better sleep

• Only about 30% of the students in the sleep-barrier study met recommended sleep guidelines, and stress was associated with shorter sleep.

Further detail

• Hoyt et al. (2018) studied 553 students in grades 9–12 from four diverse urban schools in Northern California, of whom 57% were girls.

• The sleep-barrier study used latent class analysis and Bayesian Information Criterion to identify and select the best-fitting groups.

💡 Memory Hook

School plus screens disrupt sleep

📖 4. Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Physical Activity : Any bodily movement requiring energy expenditure, including exercise, sports, walking, jogging, and household chores, assessed by frequency, duration, and intensity.
• Sedentary Behavior : Time spent sitting, lying down, or performing low-energy activities while using digital devices, measured as reported hours per day.

📝 Essential Points

★ Must-know

📌 The World Health Organization recommends that adults perform at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week.

• Physical inactivity is associated with obesity, impaired insulin sensitivity, altered lipid metabolism and glucose regulation, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, poor posture, musculoskeletal problems, stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms.

💡 Memory Hook

Move versus sit

📖 5. Screen Time–Activity Relationship

📝 Essential Points

★ Must-know

⚡ Screen time measures duration of digital-device use, whereas physical activity levels measure the frequency, duration, and intensity of bodily movement.

• Castro et al. (2020) found a negative relationship between screen hours and physical activity among university students, with higher-screen-time students less likely to participate in exercise or sports.

• Nurulaini et al. (2024) found a significant simultaneous correlation among screen time, physical activity, and physical fitness, while screen time was not directly associated with physical fitness but was associated with reduced physical activity.

Further detail

• Cagas et al. (2022) observed that Filipino students with higher screen use had significantly lower physical activity engagement.

💡 Memory Hook

Displacement: time for one, less for another

📖 6. Study Objectives and Research Questions

📝 Essential Points

★ Must-know

🔄 Process — The study aims to determine average daily screen time, assess physical activity levels, examine the relationship between screen time and physical activity participation, and identify factors influencing screen use and movement behaviors among Bukidnon State University students.

• The research questions ask for students' average daily screen time, their physical activity levels according to recommended health guidelines, and whether daily screen time has a significant relationship with physical activity.

📖 7. Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Displacement Theory : Proposes that time spent on one activity reduces the time available for other activities, so increased screen time may displace time that could be devoted to physical activity.
• Sedentary Behavior Theory : Explains that prolonged sitting and low-energy activities can negatively affect physical health and well-being, including through metabolic and mental processes independent of overall physical activity.

📝 Essential Points

★ Must-know

⚡ The conceptual framework treats screen time as the independent variable, divided into academic, social, and recreational device use, and physical activity levels as the dependent variable.

Further detail

• Physical activity levels in the framework are measured through the frequency, duration, and intensity of exercise, sports, and other movement-based behaviors.

💡 Memory Hook

Screen time → displacement → inactivity

📖 8. Scope, Significance, and Key Terms

📝 Essential Points

★ Must-know

• The study focuses on 30 full-time undergraduate students at the main campus of Bukidnon State University who regularly use digital devices for academic, personal, and recreational purposes and attend regular on-campus classes.

📌 The study uses self-reported surveys and does not use objective monitoring tools such as applications or fitness trackers.

Further detail

⚡ The study examines maximum daily screen time and physical activity levels but excludes diet, sleep quality, mental health, and stress as study variables.

• The findings may benefit students, parents and guardians, teachers and administrators, health professionals and public health agencies, and future researchers by informing healthier technology habits, wellness programs, policies, and interventions.

📖 9. Research Design and Participants

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Quantitative Correlational Design : A quantitative correlational research design measures variables numerically and examines their association without manipulating conditions.
• Purposive Sampling : Selects participants who meet characteristics required by the study, such as regularly using digital devices for academic, personal, and recreational purposes.

📝 Essential Points

★ Must-know

• Participants will be 30 full-time third-year Bachelor of Physical Education students aged 18 years or older who attend on-campus classes.

Further detail

• The study will be conducted at Bukidnon State University in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon, Philippines, specifically among students of the College of Teacher Education and Department of Physical Education.

💡 Memory Hook

Quantify, correlate, do not manipulate

📖 10. Data Collection, Analysis, and Ethics

📝 Essential Points

★ Must-know

• The self-administered questionnaire has demographic items and measures maximum daily screen time, with separate estimates for weekdays and weekends.

🔄 Process — Data collection involves securing university and possible ethics approval, obtaining permission from college authorities, explaining the study, obtaining informed consent, administering printed or secure online questionnaires, checking completeness, and encoding responses into a spreadsheet.

🧮 Formula — Pearson product-moment correlation will be used to test the relationship between continuously measured screen time and physical activity variables.

📌 Participation is voluntary, withdrawal is allowed without penalty, questionnaires contain no names, results are reported in grouped form, electronic files are password protected, and printed questionnaires are securely stored and disposed of after the study.

Further detail

📌 Statistical decisions will use a significance level of α = 0.05, and results will be presented in tables or graphs.

💡 Memory Hook

Consent, collect, correlate, protect

📊 Synthesis Tables

Study Variables

Variable	Categories or measures	Role
Screen time	Academic, social, and recreational device use; hours per day	Independent variable
Physical activity	Frequency, duration, and intensity of movement	Dependent variable
Sedentary behavior	Hours sitting, lying down, or engaging in low-energy device use	Related behavioral construct

⚠️ Common Pitfalls & Confusions

1. Screen time includes both academic and recreational use.
2. The four-hour threshold concerns the cited teenage sample, not a universal screen-time limit.
3. Physical activity includes more than organized exercise or sports.
4. A negative relationship is an association, not proof that screen time directly causes inactivity.
5. The theory predicts reduced available time; it does not by itself establish a causal relationship.
6. Self-reported estimates may vary in accuracy or honesty.
7. Correlational research observes relationships but does not experimentally establish causation.