Open AccessThe Impact of Digital Education Tools on the Well-being of Secondary School Students
Author(s) -
Н. О. Березина,
M I Stepanova
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
zdorovʹe naseleniâ i sreda obitaniâ
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2619-0788
pISSN - 2219-5238
DOI - 10.35627/2219-5238/2020-329-8-20-25
Subject(s) - laptop , medicine , ninth , psychology , computer science , acoustics , physics , operating system
Background: The relevance of scientific research on the impact of digital devices on the well-being of schoolchildrenis proved by high prevalence rates of school-related diseases in secondary school students. Our objective wasto study various aspects of schoolchildren's vital activities associated with the use of digital devices and to assesstheir influence on the well-being of teenagers. Materials and methods: In 2019, we conducted an anonymous questionnaire-based survey of 121 sixth to ninth graders (13–15 years of age) of a Moscow school. Results: In 70.0% of the teenagers,a long-term use of digital devices was accompanied by various subjective health complaints including visualdisturbances, musculoskeletal disorders attributed to excessive static loads, and nervous system disorders caused byinformation overload. We observed significant changes in life activities of the respondents: up to 39.0% reported goingto bed after midnight and almost 70.0% reported sleeping less than 8 hours; we also noted a general decrease in theamount of time spent outdoors. Less than 32% of the school teens observed the rules of a safe use of digital devices.Conclusions: Two and more hours of using a tablet or a laptop on school days were typical of 39.0%–47.0% of the teenagerswhile on weekends the rate of those using the laptop more than 4 hours daily increased by 3.6 times. More thanhalf of adolescents (up to 55.7%) reported four or more hours of a smartphone use daily. Sleep disturbances were morefrequent among smartphone than in personal computer users (31.7% against 17.0%, p<0.05). Our findings indicate thenecessity to pay serious attention to organization of rational leisure activities of adolescents and availability of variousattractive forms of physical activity in order to reduce risks of health disorders. Development of sustainable safetyskills and culture of the digital device use at school and at home remains relevant among schoolchildren.