Media parenting in rural part of India and its impact on children-a cross-sectional study, a media-parent study
Background: Media and gadgets are increasingly used in urban areas and rural pockets, among adults and children as well. Excessive use of media has its own negative consequences. Aim of the present study is to address, role of media in parenting practices, children’s daily activities and school performance. The objectives are to assess the pattern and reason for media use by children and the parental attitude and ability to regulate media handling by their children iii) the impact of media usage on school performance.Methods: It was a qualitative cross-sectional study included 200 children <18 years, visiting the hospital for outpatient services. A pre-designed questionnaire was used for data collection.Results: The analysis of the parent and the child media usage was done in relation to socioeconomic and demographic parameters. The mean age for child media exposure was found to be 6.4±3.8 years. The media use on school-days was 1.9 against 2.7 hours on the holidays. The media contents were mostly cartoon and mobile games with television and mobile being the commonest mode. Poor school performance was associated with media use of 2 hours in school days [HR=1.38 (95% CI=1.01-1.89), p=0.04]. Many parents knew about few bad consequences of media but not able to regulate due to lack of awareness.Conclusions: Proper media parenting is now an unmet need everywhere. Non-educational media content for entertainment purpose during school-days should be discouraged. Interventions like parental media education with involvement of paediatrician, school teacher and psychologist is needed.