The Impacts of Weekend Screen Exposure, Violent Content and Parent-Child Co-Viewing on Adolescents' Problematic Behaviors: A Correlational Study

Abstract

: This cross-sectional study explored the associations between electronic screen use, physical activity, sleep quality, and problematic behaviors among adolescents to provide empirical evidence for targeted psychological and behavioral interventions. In May 2025, 14 middle school students from 10 international middle schools in Shenzhen were recruited through convenience sampling. Participants completed a self-designed Electronic Screen Use Questionnaire, the Adolescent Physical Activity Questionnaire (PAQ-A), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and Kendall’s rank correlation analysis was used to examine the relationships among variables. Weekend screen use was significantly and positively correlated with emotional symptoms (r = 0.49, p < 0.05), exposure to violent content was significantly correlated with hyperactivity problems (r = 0.48, p < 0.05), and parent-child co-viewing was significantly and positively correlated with prosocial behavior (r = 0.59, p < 0.05). PAQ-A scores were not significantly associated with any SDQ dimension, and PSQI scores were not significantly associated with screen-use variables. These findings suggest that weekend screen duration and exposure to violent content may be important correlates of adolescents’ emotional symptoms and hyperactivity, whereas parent-child co-viewing may promote prosocial behavior. Interventions should therefore address screen duration, content, and family viewing contexts through family-school collaborative digital health management strategies to support adolescent mental health.