Study: majority of Cypriot children in two-car families, extensive screen use
More than 90 per cent of fathers, and more than 80 per cent of mothers in Cyprus work while more than three quarter of children on the island come from families owning two or more cars, a new study shows. In addition, the majority of almost 5,
More than 90 per cent of fathers, and more than 80 per cent of mothers in Cyprus work while more than three quarter of children on the island come from families owning two or more cars, a new study shows.
In addition, the majority of almost 5,000 children polled report having two or more bathrooms (77.8 per cent) and a dishwasher (75.1 per cent) in their house.
Also, 58.9 per cent of the students have more than two computers at home, five out of six have their own bedroom and almost one in two travelled with their family out of Cyprus on holiday the year before this study took place.
The stats come from the World Health Organisation (WHO) report on the ‘Health Behaviour in School-aged Children’ (HBSC) 2021 to 2022 which was published on Friday.
The aim of the study is to assess the health status of students aged 11, 13 and 15 years-old in relation to their health, quality of life, social environment, and health behaviours.
An online questionnaire, which included compulsory and optional topics, was administered to students of the three age groups. A school questionnaire was also administered.
The data collection took place between November 1, 2021, and April 11, 2022. In total, 287 classes, with 5,249 students, a representative sample for the reference population participated in the HBSC 2021/22 survey.
The questionnaire was completed by 4,818 students with equal numbers of boys and girls from 276 classes with a response rate at 91.8 per cent.
According to the results, almost all students report living with their mothers (96.3 per cent) and fewer with their fathers (82,9 per cent).
About 8 out of 10 agreed that their family tries to help and support them (87,8 per cent) and supports them emotionally (82.8 per cent), that they talk about their problems with their family (74.1 per cent) or that their family is willing to help them make decisions (85.3 per cent).
More than two-thirds of students (67.7 per cent) agreed that they find it very easy or easy to talk to their father about things that really bother them.
This proportion is higher in the case of the mother.
Most of the students, around three quarters, believe that they are connected and have the support of their friends and classmates, but this drops to 67.4 per cent when asked about the support of their teachers.
Younger ones, 11-year-olds, had more positive feelings about the support they receive from their teachers compared to the older students, with 81.4 per cent agreeing that that teachers accept them as they are.
Overall, students’ feelings about school were positive, with 55 per cent stating that they either like it a lot or like it very much. However, positive feelings decrease with age and only 7.9 per cent of 15-year-olds like school. Almost three quarters of that age group said there was too much pressure from schoolwork.
Students of all ages said they communicate online frequently (daily, almost all the time, all day) with close friends (33.5 per cent), with friends from a larger friend group (14.7 per cent), with other people than friends (parents, brothers, sisters, classmates and teachers) (19.3 per cent).
The study also found that a large percentage of students used social media during the past year to escape from negative feelings (boys: 44.3 per cent, girls: 57.3 per cent).
In addition, 31.1 per cent of the participants felt bad when they could not use social media while 36.1 per cent tried to spend less time on social media but failed.
More than one out of four students regularly felt dissatisfied because they wanted to spend more time on social media (28.6 per cent), had serious conflict with their parents, brothers or sisters because of their social media use (24.4 per cent) and 22.3 per cent regularly neglected other activities such as hobbies or sport because they wanted to use social media.
On a scale of one to ten, school-aged students appeared to be generally satisfied with their lives with an average score of eight.
Small percentages of students report daily headaches (6.9 per cent), stomach aches (3.8 per cent) or backaches (8.4 per cent).
A higher percentage reported experiencing feeling low (12.8 per cent), irritability or bad temper (21.1 per cent) and feeling nervous (22.6 per cent) almost every day.
“Interestingly, older students tended to complain more than the younger ones,” the survey noted.
Regarding how students perceived their future, almost half (47.7 per cent) reported that in the future they will be involved in helping other people, 69.2 per cent that they will have friends they can count on and 80 per cent said that in the future they will be healthy and safe.
Regarding sedentary-behaviour levels, 32.4 per cent of students state that they sit for a short time, while 34.9 per cent sit for a long time. Almost one in ten sit almost all the time.
The students spend around two hours or more per day playing games on a computer, games console, tablet, smartphone or TV (53.5 per cent) or using a computer and other electronic devices to access social networks (49.4 per cent).
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