Screen Behaviour and Physical Activity among 8th – 12th Grade Students from Stara Zagora and the Region

Technology addiction is a global issue. The increase of screen time leads to a sedentary lifestyle among young people. The objective of this study is to identify the characteristics of screen behaviour and the level of physical activity among 8th to 12th-grade students in Stara Zagora and the region. A group of 1257 students were surveyed between February and March 2024. A personalised survey, consisting of three standardised screen behaviour tests and a standard physical activity questionnaire, was conducted. The results were processed using IBM SPSS Statistic_Base-v.25. A low level of activity was indicated by 63.6 % of students, screen addiction by 37.9%, multitasking addiction by 39.1% and video game addiction – 19.5%. Screen addiction is found to have a statistically significant correlation with lower physical activity. It is important to raise awareness of the screen addiction risk among parents and teachers and to promote physical activity among adolescents.