Screen Time and Reported Motor Skills and Concentration Among Preschool Children in Tripoli, Libya: A Cross-Sectional Study Using Parent and Teacher Reports
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54361/LJMR.20.3.101Keywords:
screen time, motor development;, preschool children, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, physical activityAbstract
Background: Little is known about screen use and motor development among Libyan preschool children. This study examined the association between parent-reported screen time and parent- and teacher-reported motor skills and concentration in children aged 3–5 years in Tripoli, Libya.
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey from January to March 2026 using structured, researcher-developed questionnaires (not formally validated) completed by 173 parents and 41 preschool teachers, recruited through kindergartens and online parent groups by convenience and purposive sampling. Associations were examined with chi-square tests, Spearman correlations and group comparisons (α = 0.05). Effect sizes with 95% confidence intervals are reported; no correction for multiple testing was applied to the primary analyses, which are exploratory.
Results: Overall, 82.1% of children were reported to use screens for one hour or more per day and 46.8% for three hours or more; television (48.5% of responses) and smartphones (34.6%) were the most frequently used devices. Parent-reported fine and gross motor skills were rated highly and were not significantly associated with screen time. In teacher reports, screen time showed nominally significant (unadjusted) negative correlations of moderate size with gross motor skills (rs = −0.312, 95% CI −0.568 to −0.003, p = 0.047) and concentration (rs = −0.341, 95% CI −0.589 to −0.041, p = 0.029), whereas the correlation with fine motor skills was not significant (rs = −0.287, 95% CI −0.551 to 0.018, p = 0.069). These associations did not remain statistically significant after Holm adjustment for multiple comparisons.Conclusion: Heavy screen use was common, and associations with lower motor skills and concentration appeared in teacher reports (in unadjusted analyses) but not in parent reports. Because of the cross-sectional design, non-validated questionnaires and a small teacher sample, the findings are exploratory and do not establish causality. Studies using validated motor assessments and longitudinal designs are needed.
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