Introduction

Increasing screen time has a physical and psychological effect on every age. However, the psychological aspects are focused more when it comes to children. The implications of internet, specifically screen time, are detrimental to their health, for which a more holistic picture is needed to help parents take preventive measures on time. This research aims to provide research methodology for exploring how the increased screen time has affected the lives of children at home and school. The study examines parents perspectives on how increasing screen time has impacted their childrens lives. This research is motivated by the increasing concern over the potential impacts of digital technology on children's mental, physical and emotional health (Lissak, 2018). Over the last decade, use of digital devices has grown exponentially, particularly among children and adolescents, with little exploration into how this shift is affecting them long-term (Straker et al., 2018). Therefore, this research sends a critical message: gaining insights from parents' perspectives on screen lives and experiences will help inform proactive strategies to protect children's well-being during their developing years. The significance of the study cannot be underscored enough, as it could provide key evidence for policy makers in the longer term. Research questions formulated for this purpose includes the sub-question: has screen time affected childrens self-regulation, physical inactivity or obesity, and communication? The hypothesis for this study is that increased screen time without increased time spent outdoors or in exercise will results in diminishing self-regulation, obesity, and communication.

Research Design

A quantitative research design would be valuable for the current study since a quantitative questionnaire would for the testing of a hypothesis. The association is formulated with strong evidence from statistical analysis rather than subjective conclusions. The research design chosen for this is a simple descriptive case study design. The specific research instrument would be an online survey that would include five questions to gauge parents on their perceptions of how increasing screentime has impacted their children. The sample for this research would include parents whose children go to school. The parents of children aged 5 to 17 years are deemed suitable to be selected as survey respondents. This study will use social media as a way to solicit participation. Thus, the convenience sampling will be used. A total of 100 parents will be targeted for participation. It is expected that a response rate of 70% or near 70% would be obtained to gain validity in the results (Holtom et al., 2022). The sampling strategy is a simple random strategy as parents would be selected soley on chance and without discrimination of grades, class size, age of the child, gender, etc. (Bhardwaj, 2019).

Research Ethics

Based on the definition generated by federal regulations, minimal risk is the scale of harm or uneasiness anticipated for the research respondents. It should not be greater than that of ordinary life experiences, even if physical or psychological (FDA, 2014). Current research involves minimum risk, such as the possibility that could be participants might not want to share their information or use their names, and they have a right to not participate even though they sign consent letters. Research ethics surely apply to the current study as informed consent and voluntary participation are the two highlighted characteristics (Wright, 2017). Informed consent needs to be gained from the survey respondents before they agree to fill out the forms. For this purpose, even if the survey is online, there would be a separate box at the beginning of the form that would include a detailed description of the research, its purpose and objectives, and why the participation of the parents is valuable. Also, it would be ensured that their name and email addresses would not be shared with any third party...…encourage better emotional, behavioral, and physical welfare of their children. An active child with improved sleep patterns, real-play time, and social involvement with peers triggers innovative capabilities. Reliability and validity are important considerations when evaluating research exploring how screen time has affected the lives of children at home and school. Reliability refers to the consistency with which a measure yields the same results in repeated trials, while validity is concerned with whether a tool accurately measures what it sets out to measure (Wright, 2017). In order to ensure that the data collected in a study examining parents perspectives on how increased screen time has impacted their childrens lives is reliable and valid, participants must be given clear instructions and asked pertinent questions specific to the topic (Straker et al., 2018). Given that different methods of gathering data may induce certain biases, it is also advisable for researchers to use multiple methods such as interviews, surveys and focus groups. Finally, having an experienced researcher review or verify survey results can also contribute towards sufficient reliability and validity of the findings produced by this study.

Data Analysis

The data would be analyzed using the statistical tool SPSS. This tool would help in gauging the correlations between the variables like increasing screen time use (independent variable) and daily lives at home and school (dependent variable) since daily lives would be measured with three more factors, including self-regulation, obesity, and social well-being or communication, which are extracted from sub-questions (Straker et al., 2018). The chosen data analysis would contribute to the nature of these questions since parents perceptions about internet use and screen time are to be determined. If they strongly feel that the increasing screen time has impacted the three factors of the dependent variable, then sub-questions or, more appropriately, the conclusion would be maintained (Wright, 2017). Otherwise, if they feel screen time is not…