INTRODUCTION:

Mobile phones are most valuable one in today’s world. This hand sized product is needed for every category of people like youngsters, adult, women, students, old people and even children also. Having a mobile in your hand is like having this whole world with you. In this competitive world, we have various numbers of brands.

A smartphone combines the services of the Internet and a mobile phone. Smartphones offer qualitatively different services in addition to the benefits that the Internet offers. Young people watch videos, express themselves, communicate with friends, and search for information using smartphones, while older people use their smartphone for having video calls with their children living far away and for playing games. The portability and accessibility of a smartphone make it possible to use it anywhere, for any duration.¹

As per the results shown by a study conducted in the year 2018 in New Delhi, India; it was found that around 14% of those surveyed use smartphones for 3 hours or less in a day while around 63% use smartphones for 4 to 7 hours daily. According to the extant literature on cell phone usage, the number of smartphone users in India is expected to reach 690 million by 2020.²

As per a news report published on 23rd January 2019 in Trivandrum; psychologists says that around 70 per cent of the children suffer from mobile addiction. This is mostly common among children aged 13 to 18 years. The smart phone addiction results in personality disorders, there are severe cases of violence and suicide attempts too," said Prakash Chandra, psychologist.³

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM:

“A descriptive study to assess the knowledge of mothers regarding mobile phone use and mobile phone addiction among middle school children at Kollam”

OBJECTIVES:

• To assess the knowledge of mothers of middle school children

• To find out the association between knowledge regarding mobile phone use and mobile phone addiction among middle school children and selected demographic variables such as age of mother, number of child, age of child, gender of child, education of mother, occupation of mother, monthly income, type of family.

ASSUMPTIONS:

• Mothers of middle school children may have some knowledge about mobile phone use and mobile phone addiction through medias, magazines.

• There will be significant association between the knowledge regarding mobile phone use and mobile phone addiction among mothers, middle school children and selected demographic variables.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

Literature related to mobile phone use among school children:

A cross sectional study was conducted in the department of Pediatrics OPD at tertiary care teaching institute in order to assess the pattern of mobile use and reasons behind the mobile use along with the various effects of mobile amongst the rural children belonging to Marathwada region of Maharashtra, India. All the children attending the department of Pediatrics OPD below the age of 15 years were included in the study during the period of Jan. 2017 to March 2017. A total of 450 children were enrolled in the study. In the present study, 277 (61.5%) participants were boys and 173 (38.5%) were girls child. 414 (92.1%) parents were using mobile phones and 350 (77.8%) parents had smart phones. Majority 194 (43.1%) of the children were using mobiles for 1-3 hours followed by 130 (28.8%) children those who used mobile for more than 4 hours. Physical morbidities like decreased physical activity in 189 (45.8%) children, laziness in 143 (34.7%) children, pain in fingers and wrist in 76 (18.5%) and eyes symptoms in 148 (35.7%) children. While mental issues faced were, throwing tantrums if mobile not given in 187 (45.3%) children, not obeying parents 110 (26.6%), reduced grades in school 89 (21.4%). The study concluded that the use of mobile phones by young generation has increased resulting physical, social and psychological impact. It’s the role of family to regulate the use and guide the children for proper usage of mobile phones.⁴

Literature related to knowledge regarding mobile phone addiction in school children:

A descriptive study to assess the knowledge and attitude regarding internet usage and its addiction level among students studying in different colleges in Haryana on 2017. The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge & attitude internet usage among students and to assess the level of internet addiction among students. The samples were 300 students from various department of engineering, arts, commerce & others in Ambala, Haryana. The study revealed that 59.66% of students often switch to excessive computer use & internet access. It also shows that 72% of females residing in hostel (48.55%) internet in android (75%) with main purpose to update knowledge (43.33%) using 4G data (34.33%). About 58% of students had average knowledge regarding internet usage, 66.33% majority of students had average attitude, 31% of adults had below average attitude. Further the study reveals that majority 59% of students had faced problems due to occasional usage, 1.33% of students had no problems regarding internet addiction. The study concluded that internet addiction is growing problem among students of professional courses which have psychological, physical and social impact in their life.⁵

Literature related to mobile phone addiction:

A cross sectional study was conducted among 200 MBBS students from Azeezia institute of medical science and research, Kollam, India on 2017. The aim of the study was to the usage pattern and dependence of mobile phones among medical students and to evaluate the mobile phone dependence among medical students of college. Students from each batch were selected by systematic random sampling technique. A pre-designed questionnaire was used to study the pattern of mobile phone usage and its dependence among the study subjects. The present study shows increased use of mobile phones among medical students. Anxiety and frequent checking of mobile phones even by waking up from sleep indicates that students are developing mobile phone dependence which is a bad sign. The increasing use of mobile phones may result in problems. The result of the study were 35% of the students were frequent users that is they used for >30 minutes per day. Female students were talking more to their parents and male students to their friends followed by their lovers. 49 of them never used to attend the call while driving and 58 of them used to stop the vehicle and attend the call. (p=0.002) Mobile phone dependence was also found to be increased which is evident from anxiety experienced by 68 students (34%) and waking up from sleep to check the mobile for call or message by 62 students(p=0.000). Out of 68 students with anxiety, 69% were males and 37% were females (p=0.040). 82 participants (41%) commented that life without mobile will be boring and 50 (25%) said that they will feel alone or unsafe (p=0.001).⁶

Literature related to problems of mobile phone addiction:

A Cross – sectional study was conducted to assess the mobile phone usage and its effect on health among university students of Haryana in the year 2017. The objective of the study was to find out the percentage of students who have awareness of the hazards of mobile phones. A total of 330 university students who met inclusion criteria were included in cross sectional study. The primary outcome measure is Perception questionnaire on phone hazards which consists of 24 questions and 312 students filled the Questionnaire properly. Data for 312 subjects was analyzed using SPSS.17 version software. In this study 132 (41.5%) males and 186 (58.5%) females were included. Only 1 male subject was having mobile phone for 14 years and most of the subjects have been using their mobile phones for 5 years. 4 most common locations for placements of mobile phone were chosen in the research and placement of mobile in pocket was most popular choice. Pouch is chosen by 7 (22%), pocket (73.6), around neck only 1 (0.03%), in bag 63 (19.8%) and for any other 13 (4.1%) subjects. The study concluded that higher percentage of students is aware of physical hazards by mobile phones and other electronic media devices.⁷

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

Research approach:

In this study quantitative research approach was adopted in this study.

Research design:

Descriptive research was adopted in this study.

Sampling technique:

Non- probability convenience sampling technique was used for this study.

Sample:

The sample selected for this study consisted of 60 mother’s of children between 10 to 13 years residing at kollam district of Kerala.

Tool:

Tool 1: Structured Knowledge questionnaire

Section A: Socio-demographic Performa

Section B: Structured knowledge questionnaire on mobile phone use and mobile phone addiction.

Data collection process:

The data collected on 04-02-2021 by using Google forms which were sent to mothers of middle school children in Kollam through Google platform. The samples were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. A total of 60 samples were selected based on non-probability convenient sampling technique.

Data analysis:

Data obtained was analyzed in terms of objectives of study using descriptive and inferential statistics.

RESULT:

In this study it shows that 10% of samples have poor knowledge, 37% of samples have average knowledge and 53% of samples have good knowledge when tested by using a structured questionnaire.

Table 1: Scoring of Structured Knowledge Questionnaire

Score knowledge

0-6 poor

7-12 Average

13-18 Good

Table2: Chi-square value showing association of knowledge score with selected demographic variable.

Sl. No	Variables	Levels of knowledge			df	Chi-square value	Inference
Sl. No	Variables	Poor	Average	Good	df	Chi-square value	Inference
1	Age of mother
	20-30years	2	4	13	4	3.176	NS
	31-40 years	4	14	14
	41-50 years	1	3	5
2.	Number of children
	1	0	8	9	6	6.003	NS
	2	5	9	19
	3	1	4	4
	Above	3	0	1
3.	Age of children
	10	0	8	7	6	6.066	NS
	11	3	3	9
	12	2	5	7
	13	1	6	9
4.	Gender of child
	Male	4	11	8	2	5.9	S
	Female	2	11	24	2	5.9	S
Sl .no	Variables	Levels of knowledge			df	Chi-square value	inference
Sl .no	Variables	Poor	Average	Good	df	Chi-square value	inference
1.	Education of mother
	Up to SSLC	0	5	9	6	12.6	S
	Pre degree	1	9	13
	Graduate	5	6	5
	Postgraduate	0	2	5
2.	Occupation of mother
	Govt. employee	0	1	4	6	4.9	NS
	Private employee	3	6	10
	Self-employee	2	5	4
	Others	1	10	14
3.	Monthly income of family
	<5000	1	10	22	6	16.8	S
	5000-10000	3	8	7
	11000-20000	2	0	2
	>20000	0	4	1
8.	Type of family
	Nuclear family	5	3	4	4	16.72	S
	Joint family	1	19	28
	Others	0	0	0

*NS – Not significant **S-Significant.

It shows that the degree of freedom for age of mother was 4 and the chi square is 3.176 which was less than table value (9.49) at 0.05 level of significance, so no significant association was found between age of mother and knowledge. In case of number of children the degree of freedom was 6 and the chi square is 6.003 which is less than table value (12.59) at 0.05 level of significance, so no significant association was found between number of children and knowledge. In case of age of children the degree of freedom was 6 and the chi square value is 6.066 which is less than table value (12.59) at 0.05 level of significance, so no significant association was found between age of children and knowledge. In case of gender of child the degree of freedom was 2 and the chi square value is 5.9 which is greater than table value (5.99) at 0.05 level of significance, so association was found between gender of child and knowledge. In case of education of mother the degree of freedom was 6 and the chi square value is 12.6 which is greater than table value (12.6) at 0.05 level of significance, so association was found between education of mother and knowledge. In case of occupation of mother the degree of freedom was 6 and the chi square value is 4.9 which is less than table value (12.6) at 0.05 level of significance, so no significant association was found between occupation of mother and knowledge. In case of income of family the degree of freedom was 6 and the chi square value is 16.8 which is greater than table value (12.6) at 0.05 level of significance, so association was found between income of family and knowledge. In case of type of family the degree of freedom was 4 and the chi square value is 16.72 which is greater than table value(9.49) at 0.05 level of significance, so association was found between type of family and knowledge.

CONCLUSION:

The present study aimed to assess the knowledge of mothers regarding mobile phone use and mobile phone addiction among middle school children at Kollam. The study result shows that there was significant association between gender of child, education of mother, monthly income of family, type of family among mothers of middle school children (calculated value >tabulated value) at 0.05 level of significance.

RECOMMENDATION:

Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that,

• A similar kind of study can be conducted for a larger group of mothers.

• An experimental study can be conducted to assess the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on knowledge of mothers regarding mobile phone use and mobile phone addiction among middle school children.

REFERENCE:

1. Seong-Soo Cha, Bo-kyung Seo (2018) 'Smartphone use and smartphone addiction in middle school students in Korea: Prevalence, social networking service, and game use', PMC, 5(PMC5802650),Available: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5802650/ (Accessed: 2nd February 2018).

2. Eram Agha. 150 Times a Day: Study Shows Indian Students’ Alarming Smartphone Addiction. https://www.news18.com/news/india/according-to-new-study-students-check-their-mobile-devices-as-many-as-150-times-in-a-day-1720539.html (accessed April 17; 2018).

3. Merin Mariya. Mobile addiction: Clicking their way to danger. https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/thiruvananthapuram/2019/jan/22/clicking-their-way-to-danger-1928701.html (accessed 22nd January 2019).

4. Sharad Bansal, R. C. Mahajan. Impact of mobile use amongst children in rural area of Marathwada region of Maharashtra, India. International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics 2018;5(1): .https://www.ijpediatrics.com/index.php/ijcp/article/view/1259/954 (accessed 11 November 2017).

5. S. Karthika, Amanpreet Kaur, Annu Saini, Bawandeep Kaur, Bharti, Damini, Gunjan (2017) 'A descriptive study to assess the knowledge and attitude regarding internet usage and its addiction level among students studing in selected college of Ambala, Hariyana, World journal of pharmacy and pharmaceutical science S, 6(), pp. [Online]. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/ (Accessed: 5th July 2017).

6. Chandrani Borkotoky , Jinamoni Saikia (2019) 'Comparative Study of Mobile Phone Dependence among Youth and Adults', Indian journal of pure and applied bio sciences, 6(: 2582 – 2845), pp. 214-220 [Online]. Available at: http://www.ijpab.com/ (Accessed: 4th December 2019).

7. Jaspreet Kaur, Manoj Malik, Sonu Punia, Puja. Mobile phone usage and its effect on health among university students. International Journal of Advanced Research and Development 2017; 2(6): file:///C:/Users/LAB07/Downloads/2-6-18-420%20(1).pdf (accessed November 2017).

Received on 29.07.2021 Modified on 10.09.2021

Asian J. Nursing Education and Research. 2022; 12(1):114-118.

DOI: 10.52711/2349-2996.2022.00024