Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice

Advisor

Roslyn Doctorow

Committee Member

Beverly Knox-Pipes

Committee Member

Kimberly Durham

Keywords

anxiety disorders, computer use, reading achievement, smartphones, time management

Abstract

The problem addressed in this study was the fixation of screen time among fifth-grade students at a kindergarten to Grade 12 private school in South Florida. By the time children reach age 12, 69% of adolescents own a smartphone. The purpose of this study was designed to determine (a) the relationship between screen time use and reading achievement among fifth graders, (b) the relationship between parents’ awareness of their child’s screen time use and their child’s actual screen time use, and (c) how well fifth-grade students’ Thinking Maps illustrate the problems associated with screen time fixation at a kindergarten to Grade 12 private school in South Florida.

The target population involved 15 fifth-grade students and their parents at a kindergarten to Grade 12 private school in South Florida. The sampling procedure used in this study was nonprobability sampling. More specifically, convenience sampling was used because these were students in the researcher’s fifth-grade homeroom classroom, as well as their parents. The instruments that were used in this study were a Digital Citizenship Student Survey, a Digital Citizenship Parent Survey, the MAP Growth Reading assessment, and two types of Circle Maps as part of the Thinking Maps Routine.

The findings revealed that screen time is a significant part of students’ lives, especially for both social and entertaining purposes. One recommendation is to include using all three Measures of Academic Progress Reading tests taken throughout a school year to compare fall, winter, and spring results based on the influence and knowledge gained from the Digital Citizenship curriculum. A second recommendation is to better align both the Digital Citizenship Student and Parent surveys so that it is easier to compare responses rather than searching for similarities and differences independently. A third recommendation is to expand the current study by collecting data beyond fifth-grade students, as accumulating information from older students could strengthen the results.

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