Efectos de la exposición prolongada a pantallas en los procesos de atención sostenida y lectura comprensiva en niños de 6 a 10 años: Effects of prolonged screen exposure on sustained attention and reading comprehension processes in children aged 6 to 10 years
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This study examines the relationship between daily screen exposure time and performance in sustained attention and reading comprehension among 186 children aged 6 to 10 years enrolled at the Manuel de Echeandía Primary School in Guaranda, Ecuador. The design was quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional, and correlational-comparative in scope, applying inductive, analytical-synthetic, and hypothetical-deductive methods of the 2024–2025 academic year. Sampling was probabilistic and stratified by school grade and sex. The instruments used were the Family Digital Habits Questionnaire (FDHQ), the d2 Attention Test, and the Reading Comprehension Tests ECL-1 and ECL-2; analysis included Spearman correlation and multiple linear regression. Results revealed statistically significant negative correlations between screen time and sustained attention (r_s = −.41, p < .001) and between screen time and reading comprehension (r_s = −.37, p < .001). Passive video content consumption showed the strongest association with attentional deficits (r_s = −.46), whereas active educational content produced a considerably smaller effect (r_s = −.18). The regression model accounted for 31% of the variance in sustained attention; screen time (β = −.34) and passive content (β = −.27) were the most robust negative predictors, while nightly sleep hours functioned as a protective variable (β = .18). Children with more than three hours of daily exposure scored significantly lower on both cognitive measures.
Language: Spanish
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7217791540