2.2.1. Media Activity Form (MAF)—Youth Self-Report; Media Activity Form—Parent Report

The media activity form (MAF)—youth self-report and parent report [39] was used for collecting data regarding the use, and the perceived impact of the use, of media in youth based on their self-reports and on parents’ reports. The MAF includes three sections. The first section aims to collect basic socio-demographic data (sex, age, and school year). The second section focuses on media activity use. It is composed of 13 items concerning different activities within media (e.g., social networking on Facebook, Instagram, etc.). In this section, participants state how long (in hours and minutes) they spend, or their children spend, on each of the activities on a typical weekday, on a typical Saturday, and on a typical Sunday. The third section examines the youths’ or parents’ perception of the negative impact of media activity. It includes 11 items (e.g., “I would rather be on media than do things with my family” for the youth self-report; “My child would feel better if they spent less time on media” for the parent report) with 3 possible responses based on a Likert scale: participants score 0 if the statement is not true; 1 if the statement is somewhat or sometimes true; 2 if the statement is very true or often true.

The MAF was translated to Portuguese as part of a larger international project. The translation process included a think-aloud procedure and a back-translation conducted by a North American native English-speaker. The translated version was approved by the author. The items concerning the negative impact of media use showed good reliability in the present study’s sample (Cronbach’s α = 0.81 for the youth self-report and 0.87 for the parent report).