Screen Time Effects on Children's Social Emotional Wellbeing
This paper presents a qualitative research proposal investigating how daily screen time affects the social and emotional wellbeing of school-aged children between the ages of 5 and 10. Drawing on existing literature linking screen use to reduced psychological wellbeing and increased anxiety, the proposal outlines a face-to-face interview-based methodology with parents as the primary respondents. It covers the research design rationale, sampling strategy, ethical considerations including informed consent and voluntary participation, data collection procedures, and plans for thematic data analysis. The paper also addresses researcher positionality, as well as strategies for ensuring consistency, neutrality, and trustworthiness within a qualitative framework.
- Introduction: Screen time's negative effects on child wellbeing
- Research Design: Qualitative interview design rationale and approach
- Sampling Strategy: Parent participants aged 5–10 child sample selection
- Research Ethics: Informed consent, voluntary participation, and confidentiality
- Data Collection and Research Bias: Interview procedures, flexibility, and researcher reflexivity
- Data Analysis: Thematic analysis of interview transcripts
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What makes this paper effective
- The proposal clearly justifies each methodological choice — for example, explaining why face-to-face interviews are preferred over surveys for capturing parental perceptions in depth.
- Ethical considerations are handled with appropriate detail, including consent procedures, voluntary participation, data confidentiality, and conflict-of-interest reduction.
- The researcher's positionality is honestly acknowledged, strengthening transparency and reflexivity within the qualitative framework.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates strong methodological justification — a technique central to qualitative research proposals. Rather than simply stating what will be done, the writer explains why each design decision (interview format, random sampling, thematic analysis) is appropriate for the research questions and target population. Citations from peer-reviewed sources are used to support procedural choices, not just conceptual claims.
Structure breakdown
The paper follows a standard research proposal structure: a brief literature-grounded introduction, followed by sequential sections on research design, sampling, ethics, data collection, and analysis. Each section builds on the previous one, showing how the choices interconnect. The appendix provides a concrete consent form template that complements the ethics discussion. This logical sequencing makes the proposal easy to evaluate against standard IRB or ethics board criteria.
Introduction
Screen time is mostly associated with negative consequences, especially for children. Screen time refers to time spent using smartphones, tablets, laptops, electronic games, and television (Twenge & Campbell, 2018). With just one hour of daily use, children aged 2 to 17 years show signs of low psychological well-being, greater anxiety, and reduced focus — contributing to an inability to complete certain daily tasks (Twenge & Campbell, 2018). This research explores screen time's effects on school-aged children's social and emotional well-being. A specific age bracket is identified to simplify the research objectives, and parents' perceptions are investigated through a qualitative study built around targeted research questions.
Research Design
A qualitative research design is valuable for this study because it enables in-depth analysis of respondents' opinions and experiences. Qualitative methods help capture the original thoughts and perceptions of parents whose children are exposed to screen time daily, and reveal what effects those parents observe in their children's social and emotional well-being. Face-to-face interviews are expected to yield a better response rate than questionnaires or surveys, since quick and elaborated replies can be obtained in real time. The selected research instrument is interviewing, as the viewpoints generated by parents can be transferred into generalizations about the larger target population.
Sampling Strategy
The sample for this research would include parents of school-aged children. Parents of children aged 5 to 10 years are deemed suitable participants for the interviews. This age group is appropriate because parents observe their children using mobile phones at home — primarily for playing games or watching videos (Radesky et al., 2020). Children aged 5 to 10 have also been highlighted most frequently in previous studies, including Twenge and Campbell (2018). Their social and emotional health depends on how they interact with one another and develop the logical reasoning needed for enhanced problem-solving (Healthwise, 2021). Parents are therefore a valuable source for identifying whether screen time affects children positively or negatively in these domains.
The sample size selection is designed to ensure valid results. The first criterion for validity is achieving a maximum response rate of 70%, or as close to that as possible (Holtom et al., 2022). Simple random sampling would be used to select parent participants so that every individual has an equal chance to share their opinions, without discrimination based on gender, race, class, or school grade (Bhardwaj, 2019). The study would, however, restrict participation to parents of children in kindergarten through grade 5 — that is, children aged 5 to 10 years.
References
Alamri, W. A. (2019). Effectiveness of qualitative research methods: Interviews and diaries. International Journal of English and Cultural Studies, 2(1), 65–70. https://doi.org/10.11114/ijecs.v2i1.4302
Bhardwaj, P. (2019). Types of sampling in research. Journal of the Practice of Cardiovascular Sciences, 5(3), 157–163.
Booker, Q. S., Auston, J. D., & Balasubramanian, B. A. (2021). Survey strategies to increase participant response rates in primary care research studies. Family Practice, 38(5), 699–702.
Canadian Paediatric Society, Digital Health Task Force, Ottawa, Ontario. (2019). Digital media: Promoting healthy screen use in school-aged children and adolescents. Paediatrics & Child Health, 24(6), 402–417.
FDA. (2014). Minimal risk.
Grant, S. C. (2021). Informed consent — we can and should do better. JAMA Network Open, 4(4).
Healthwise. (2021, September 20). Growth and development, ages 6 to 10 years. My Health Alberta.
Holtom, B., Baruch, Y., Aguinis, H., & Ballinger, G. A. (2022). Survey response rates: Trends and a validity assessment framework. Human Relations, 75(8), 1560–1584.
Noble, H., & Smith, J. (2015). Issues of validity and reliability in qualitative research. Evidence-Based Nursing, 18, 34–35.
Radesky, J. S., Weeks, H. M., Ball, R., Schaller, A., Yeo, S., Durnez, J., Tamayo-Rios, M., Epstein, M., Kirkorian, H., Coyne, S., & Barr, R. (2020). Young children's use of smartphones and tablets. Pediatrics, 146(1).
Romain, P. L. (2015). Conflicts of interest in research: Looking out for number one means keeping the primary interest front and center. Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine, 8(2), 122–127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12178-015-9270-2
Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2018). Associations between screen time and lower psychological well-being among children and adolescents: Evidence from a population-based study. Preventive Medicine Reports, 12, 271–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2018.10.003
Xu, A., Baysari, M. T., Stocker, S. L., Leow, L. J., Day, R. O., & Carland, J. E. (2020). Researchers' views on, and experiences with, the requirement to obtain informed consent in research involving human participants: A qualitative study. BMC Medical Ethics, 21. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00538-7
Appendix
SREB No: 2020-12-005-034
Dear participant,
I am a fourth-year student in the Honor Bachelor of Early Childhood Leadership (HBECL) program. In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the program, I am conducting a research project entitled ___________________________.
The purpose of the study is to ________________________________________.
Specifically, this study will _____________________________.
A better understanding of [topic area or focus] is important because ______________________________________________________________.
To complete this project, I am presently seeking [description of participants] willing to participate in the study. This study is qualitative, and the chosen data collection method is a qualitative interview. Your participation would involve [answering questions] on ________________________________. The interview comprises # questions and is expected to take approximately # minutes.
There are no known or anticipated risks to you from participating in this research. As a participant, you will remain anonymous. Your identity will be kept safe and confidential at all times. Throughout the study, the researcher will not refer to your name or any other identifying information, which will help ensure the confidentiality of all information gathered. The information recorded will be written objectively, treated professionally, and kept confidential.
There is no immediate benefit from participating in this study. However, you may receive satisfaction from voicing your beliefs and experiences on _______________________. In the long run, the results of the study may help produce changes in _______________________.
Your participation is completely voluntary, and you have no obligation to participate. If you choose to participate, you may withdraw from the study at any time without suffering any negative consequences.
For online questionnaire studies: Participants can withdraw at any time while completing the online questionnaire by exiting the questionnaire website tab. Incomplete questionnaires will be removed from the database. Due to the anonymous nature of the online questionnaire, however, once it has been completed and submitted, a participant may not withdraw from the study, as the researcher will have no way of matching a participant with their completed questionnaire.
The data collected will be kept in the researcher's computer under a secured, password-protected file that only the researcher can access. The research supervisor will also have a copy of the data. Data will be retained until the research project is complete, after which it will be destroyed. It is anticipated that the results of this study will be shared at a conference presentation. A summary of the study's results will also be available upon request.
If you choose to participate, your contribution will add to the growing body of literature on ____________________________________________. You may contact the researcher or their supervisor if you have any questions about the study. You will be provided with an electronic copy of this letter and are encouraged to retain it for future reference.
Thank you for your time.
Researcher
[Name and contact information redacted]
Research Supervisor
[Name and contact information redacted]
If you have any questions regarding the ethical conduct of this study, please contact the Chair of the Research Ethics Board at the institution.
I have read the above information and consent to participate in the study.
Participant Name: ___________________________
*Signature (if 18 years or older): ___________________________
*Free and informed consent must be obtained from a guardian using a Guardian Consent Form for any participant under 18.
Date: ___________________________
Principal Investigator Name: ___________________________
Principal Investigator Telephone or Email: ___________________________
Supervisor Name: [redacted]
Supervisor Telephone/Email: [redacted]
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.