PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH METHODS LITERATURE REVIEW 1

Psychology Research Methods Literature Review

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation
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Psychology Research Methods Literature Review

The examination connecting sleep output and screen time remain a study of the

psychology of children's wellbeing. Additionally, a growing population in the current world

spend most of their leisure time on mobile phones surfing the internet and playing video games.

Principally, shortened durations and delayed sleep time are vivid in longer screen time

concentrations among many children. Similarly, the same has adverse effects on their resilience

and developmental stages as they mature. Emphasis is given on reducing screen vulnerability in

children, to reduce the dangerous effects of the same on affecting their prosperity and maturity

(Hale & Guan, 2015). To better understand the magnitude of the association, methodological

hindrances are accounted for in extant studies. Notably, steps and theoretical procedures

identifying the problem statement, literature review, and identifying the research questions will

be given the green light to bridge the existing gap on screen time having a poor effect on sleep.

Problem statement

The study's general concern is the emphasis of screen time having a significant effect on

poor sleep. Additionally, the topics will be the importance of sleep, the universality of sleep

problems, and the subjective and objective measures of slumber. World Health Organization

(2019) asserts the critical outcomes of cognitive development and psychosocial health and

adiposity for children under five years due to long screen time activity. Equally important, the

relevance of the topic of study to real-world issues is the shortcomings that are evidence of long
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time screen concentrations in kids. The negative effects include aches and vision problems,

having an overall output of poor sleep in kids (Sanders et al., 2016). Consequently, sleep is

essential for children's optimal performance, including development, behavior, cognition, and

health.

Research Question

What is the effect of screen time in inducing sleep disorders?

Hypothesis

Without any presupposition of its fact, my study's start is made on the limited evidence

that is available explaining the effect of screen time in leading to poor naps. If a child takes

longer time on the screen before bedtime, the toddler will experience poor sleep difficulties.

Moreover, the youngster will face troubles while fitting in the social context of their

surroundings.

Null hypothesis

There is no relationship between screen time and poor affect sleep in children.

My study will be set up on an experimental design basis to explain the linkage between

poor sleeping disorders and screen time. Abbreviated questionnaires labeled on sleeping habits

will be presented to the guardians and parents. Similarly, the questionnaires will be delineated on

a four-point Likert Scale, with the reaction alternatives'; usually, sometimes, rarely, and never.

Dependent variables
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The dependent variables used in my experiment include the duration of sleep and slumber

disturbances. According to Sadeh (2015), the proxy of sleep quality is determined by nap

duration and troubles in sleep. Consequently, the dependent variables will finally be measured

through chi-square calculations to assess their relevance.

Independent variables

The independent variables used in my study included televisions, smartphones, laptops, and

PlayStation games. My review included the issuance of questionnaires to parents. They

responded with the number of hours or minutes their children engaged in video gaming, surfing

the internet, and laptops usage. Crucially, to ensure that the independent variables' responses

were not automated and random, contributors (N=2) were eliminated from the research if they

had more than one inaccurate feedback.

Theoretical Consideration

To generate new knowledge of ideas in my proposal, I had to incorporate a theory to

provide an overview context of my research. Notably, I used the psychological theory explaining

the diagnosing of mood disorganization such as depression and anxiety to enhance the wellbeing

of a child (Manderscheid et al., 2010). Assuredly, the concept behind the theory asserted the

shifting from a diagnosis-focused to a person-focused model. Moreover, the theory stressed on

productive psychological function for mental wellness.

My research was intertwined with the theory on the definition of enabling children feel

positive and enthusiastic through the reduction of screen time. Consequently, the minimization of

screen time would have a significant effect of making them gain enough slumber to enhance
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their physical and mental wellness. Furthermore, from my study a substitute activity of

participating in sports and physical activity events would instead be of benefit to improve their

health status. The ethical considerations in my research were the respect for anonymity, privacy

and confidentiality.

Literature Review

Existing literatures advised the youths to minimize the time they spent on the screen so as

to reduce unfavorable effects of wellbeing and sleep time. Moreover, the literatures examined on

the scientific reviews explaining the relationship between the increase of screen time and

sleeping disorders among school children particularly adolescents (Aishworiya et al., 2018). On

the review of most studies published between the years 2000 and early 2016, I found out that

screen time is perniciously associated with sleeping problems in eighty percent of the articles.

The outcomes altered in present reviews were the age of the contributors, the bracket of

exposure, the particular day of the week and gender. Principally, existing review suggested that

compared to objective techniques, subjective assessments for slumber particularly for developing

children were of restricted utility (Sebela et al., 2019). Nevertheless, no literature has compared

that subjective measures are essential for analyzing sleep in youngsters having autism spectrum

disorders.

The experimental design of existing proposals incorporated both subjective and objective

measures of study. Notably, they used videosomnography, polysomnography and actigraphy as

the objective measures. Significantly, actigraphy was to demonstrated by movements of the

limbs during the night by a wristwatch microcomputer that recorded the motions.

Polysomnography provided data on the physiologic activities happening during slumber whereby
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a good example of demonstration was eye movements. Assuredly, videosomnograhy went hand

in hand with actigraphy but on a differential study, whereby a video recording system was put in

the child’s bedroom to capture all the activities happening during sleep. The subjective measures

used were sleep habit questionnaires, responses from single items and sleep diaries.

Advantages from the bound reviews is how the subjective measures were able to

correlate with the variables by capturing the exact events as they happened. Nevertheless, both

the subjective and cognitive measures were affected by human biasness which included an

assumption of no negative information existed. Moreover, there was an advantage of the

subjective measures giving information that was not recorded by objective measures and unified

them as standalone tools.

To add up to the reason for my research, the peer reviewed articles had gaps of concerns.

They included; limited information on the persistent usage of several screens, their attributes and

the type of content viewed. Moreover, both screen time and sleep disorders had measurements

errors, and causal relationship had not been found. The foretold remain unknown in my topic,

hence, justifying my study.

The current peer reviewed articles appreciated the APA standards and principles

associated with conducting research involving human beings. Firstly, the studies were able to

follow informed rules and regulations when giving out questionnaires and collecting information

with the objective tools of experiments. Secondly, the works protected the children’s privacy and

kept the information collected confidential to themselves. Thirdly, the research studies

appreciated the proper ethics of research while consulting intellectual attributes in a

straightforward manner.
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In conclusion, higher concentrations on the screen has a significant effect of causing poor

sleep in children. The study will incorporate the research procedures requiring in asserting the

same in the developmental stages of youngsters. Moreover, the research study will be able to

provide data on the existing gaps from other peer reviewed articles on screen time having a poor

effect in sleep.

References
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Aishworiya, R., Kiing, J. S., Chan, Y. H., Tung, S. S., & Law, E. (2018). Screen time exposure

and sleep among children with developmental disabilities. Journal of paediatrics and

child health, 54(8), 889-894.

Hale, L., & Guan, S. (2015). Screen time and sleep among school-aged children and adolescents:

a systematic literature review. Sleep medicine reviews, 21, 50-58.

Manderscheid, R. W., Ryff, C. D., Freeman, E. J., McKnight-Eily, L. R., Dhingra, S., & Strine,

T. W. (2010). Peer reviewed: evolving definitions of mental illness and

wellness. Preventing chronic disease, 7(1).

Sadeh, A. (2015). Iii. Sleep assessment methods. Monographs of the Society for Research in

Child Development, 80(1), 33-48.

Sanders, W., Parent, J., Forehand, R., & Breslend, N. L. (2016). The roles of general and

technology-related parenting in managing youth screen time. Journal of Family

Psychology, 30(5), 641.

Sebela, A., Kolenic, M., Farkova, E., Novak, T., & Goetz, M. (2019). Decreased need for sleep

as an endophenotype of bipolar disorder: an actigraphy study. Chronobiology

international, 36(9), 1227-1239.

World Health Organization. (2019). Guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and

sleep for children under 5 years of age: web annex: evidence profiles (No.

WHO/NMH/PND/19.2). World Health Organization.