Effects of parents’ overuse of social media on children’s development: a case of Nkuhungu ward, Dodoma City Council
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Date
2020
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
The University of Dodoma
Abstract
This dissertation reports findings of the study on the effects of parents‘ overuse of Social Media (SM), on children‘s physical and social-emotional development. It specifically assess the magnitude and nature of SM usage by parents and caregivers, children‘ physical effects due to their parents‘ overuse of SM and children‘s social-emotional effects resulting from parents overuse of SM. Data were collected from 110 respondents by using survey questionnaires, in depth interviews and FGDs. Both qualitative and quantitative methods with the help of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, Version 20) were used to analyse data. The analysis has revealed that most parents are registered to more than one SM and are over-used throughout the day. Moreover, parents have been using SM over five years mostly via WhatsApp, YouTube and Facebook and 50.9% have recorded an addictive behavior as they visit SM every after 15 minutes and less. Majority of respondents have opted for SM over their children affairs in order to view new services, products and information which led to undermined children‘s physical growth milestones at their respective age. This causes serious physical defects like falls, scalds and burns leading to permanent physical deformity. 52% of parents associate their SMs overuse to observed children injuries. The resulting social-emotional effects to children include poor language mastery among children of the over-users and love shifting to caregivers as well as the technology among the children of the normal users. Other effects include weak emotional bonding and poor conflict resolution skills. The study concludes that most of the physical and social emotional development problems noted in children are directly associated with SMs overuse by the parents in the study area. Therefore, the study recommends that parents should create and maintain interpersonal connection with children at all times, especially at the very tender age (0-5). This can be achieved by parents‘ devotion to increase quality family time with their children without technology
Description
Dissertation (MA Sociology)
Keywords
Parents, Social media, Children‘s physical development, Children‘s social-emotional development, Child development, Physical development, Social-emotional development, Social media use
Citation
Mgumia, M. P. (2020). Effects of parents’ overuse of social media on children’s development: a case of Nkuhungu ward, Dodoma City Council (Master's dissertation). The University of Dodoma, Dodoma.