ABSTRACT
Background: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic prompted rules and laws such as lockdown, which contributed to staying at home and participating in sedentary activities such as using smartphones, tablets, televisions, gaming devices, and computers. As a result of the increased use of digital screen time, a worldwide issue has arisen among various age groups, especially adolescents, which may have affected their psychological well-being, increasing their susceptibility to anxiety-related disorders. Objective: This study aimed to assess the relationship between screen time exposure and the presence of anxiety-related disorders among adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A quantitative descriptive cross-sectional design using convenience sampling was used in this study. The online self-administered questionnaire, including the Arabic-translated version of the Screen for Child Anxiety-related Disorders (SCARED-C), was distributed through social media using Google forms between February and April 2021. The Chi-Squared test was used for data analysis. Results: Of 625 participants, majority were females (n = 527, 84.3%) than males (n = 98, 15.7%). A significant difference between screen time and the presence of an anxiety-related disorder among adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic (p = .021) was noted. More than half of the participants (n = 410, 65.6%) scored above 25 in the SCARED-C test, indicating the presence of an anxiety-related disorder regardless of the type. Of those, more than a quarter (n = 176, 28.2%) used screens for more than 8 hours a day. Conclusion: The results indicated a relationship between screen time exposure and the presence of anxiety-related disorders among adolescents during the pandemic. In particular, adolescents are more susceptible to the adverse effects of increased exposure to screen time, which is constantly on the rise. Therefore, nurses and other healthcare professionals can play a significant role in providing guidance and advice to parents, caregivers, and adolescents themselves on how to limit screen time exposure. The findings can also be useful for future studies to build on and develop screen time management interventions and guidelines.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 Pandemic has a huge influence on the learning process worldwide. To maintain student academic progress, learning activities were converted to distance learning to control the further spread of the COVID-19 virus. During this period several studies around the world were conducted to assess the effectiveness of distance learning. The results of these studies showed different perspectives, some of the students preferred e-learning while other preferred traditional methods. The aim of this study was to assess the experience of undergraduate nursing students who used distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. A quantitative, cross-sectional design was used to conduct the study. A convenient sampling approach was used to collect the data electronically via self-reported questionnaires. The study included 328 participants. The average score of the effectiveness domain was (2.58 +/- 0.68, medium level), and the satisfaction domain was (2.56 +/- 0.54, medium level). The results indicate that technical issues were the most significant barrier (75.6%) to distance learning, followed by physical problems, and decreased access to technological devices. Savings in transportation costs (74.1%), savings in time (71.6%), and the opportunity to review recorded lectures (67.4%) were the benefits of distance learning reported by nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the nursing students reported a positive preference for distance learning. Technical issues were the most significant barrier while decreased transportation costs were the most significant facilitator. These findings were consistent with other studies from different settings. Further research is needed to build upon these findings. (C) 2022 The Authors. Published by IASE.