Parents’ knowledge and attitudes toward usage of digital screen devices in 6-month-old to 5-year-old children in Thailand

Authors

  • Wiwat Angkittisawat King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand
  • Napakkawat Buathong Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University Hatyai, Songkla, Thailand
  • Pantri Kirdchok Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Keywords:

Parents’ attitudes, parents’ knowledge, usage of digital screen devices in children

Abstract

Background: Because 6-month-old to 5-year-old children cannot control their behavior of using digital screen devices on their own and control and supervision from parents are required, parents’ knowledge toward proper usage of digital screen devices in children is necessary.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate parents’ knowledge and attitudes toward usage of digital screen devices in 6-month-old to 5-year-old children in Thailand.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. The data were collected from 954 samples of parents of 6-month-old to 5-year-old children in Thailand. They volunteered to answer the online questionnaire between April – June 2019.

Results: Most parents used digital screen devices 6 hours/day or over, mostly used in front of children gif.latex?\leq 1 hour/day. Most parents had very good knowledge and attitudes toward usage of digital screen devices in 6-month-old to 5-year-old children. But only 58.8 - 61.6% of them could follow the instructions of how to use digital screen devices in children properly. Most children used digital screen devices less than 1 hour/day and started using digital screen devices before 2 years old. Parents’ knowledge and attitudes were related to usage in children in terms of their age of initial usage and usage duration. The findings indicated personal factors and usage in parents were related to children’s age of initial usage and duration of children each day.

Conclusion: The study found that parents’ knowledge and attitudes toward proper usage of digital screen devices in 6-month-old to 5-year-old children. The findings can be applied for planning how to educate parents about using digital screen devices more properly under different ages of children based on valid recommendations.

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Published

2023-07-18

How to Cite

1.
Angkittisawat W, Buathong N, Kirdchok P. Parents’ knowledge and attitudes toward usage of digital screen devices in 6-month-old to 5-year-old children in Thailand. Chula Med J [Internet]. 2023 Jul. 18 [cited 2024 Nov. 6];66(3). Available from: https://he05.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/CMJ/article/view/91