Wellbeing and Health
The relationship between young people’s digital media use and their health and wellbeing, learning about health via digital platforms
A Time Based Assessment of Children Advertising Guidelines on Child Food Consumption and Preferences in Singapore
Principal Investigator: May Lwin
This was a longitudinal programme to track children’s food consumption behaviours, and investigate the role of media advertisements and family environment on their food choices. Data was collected through surveys, content analysis of TV advertisements, and in-depth interviews. This provided a rich understanding of the changes in food consumption amongst children, the impact of policy changes on food consumption, and the transition of advertisements from traditional media to social media platforms. A concurrent research project was granted in 2018, which focuses on assessing the effectiveness of an interactive mobile health application in promoting healthful eating and exercise behaviours among children.
ScreenLife Capture: Understanding youth smartphone use and their effects using a screenomics-approach (2020-Present)
Principal Investigator: Andrew Yee
This project uses high-frequency screenshot data (or screenomics) to better understand and identify the different types and quality of smartphone use among youths. It combines traditional survey methods with screenomics to understand how patterns of smartphone use relate to individual well-being. To do this, our team at SUTD developed an open-source Android software called ScreenLife Capture to unobtrusively capture high-frequency screenshots (every 5 seconds) on smartphones, providing rich behavioral smartphone use data which can be analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. A sample of the type of data used in a screenomics study can be seen here. A paper describing the open-source software suite suitable for researchers with little to no programming expertise is currently under review and will be freely accessible soon.
Assessing and measuring the quality of screen time for Singaporean Preschoolers: A mixed-method study (2021-Present)
Principal Investigator: Andrew Yee
This project, generously funded by the National Institute of Education Office of Education Research (Singapore), is aimed at understanding what constitutes healthy forms of media consumption among younger children. Specifically, we look at the context (e.g. social interaction with parents during and around media consumption), technological affordances (e.g. interactive versus non-interactive), and content (e.g. developmentally appropriate) surrounding media consumption which can confer positive developmental benefits for children.