“EFFECTIVENESS OF STP ON KNOWLEDGE OF PARENTS REGARDING ADVERSE EFFECTS OF TELEVISION IN CHILDREN”

Background of the study: Children of this generation addicted to the evil of society called Television and Mobile phone. The excessive viewing of TV may leads to Childhood obesity, Vision problems, Behavioral and Social maladjustments, decreased physical activity in children etc. Report suggested 85% of the food habits in children were based on Television and its advertisements. 62% of the behavioral problems in children are due to adverse effects of television. Objectives of the study: To evaluate the effectiveness of STP on knowledge of parents regarding Adverse effects of Television in children. Methodology: The research approach used in this study was Evaluative in nature and design adopted was pre experimental single group pre test -post test design. Total of 60 parents were selected by using Convenience sampling technique.A structured online questionnaire method


ISSN: 2320-5407
Int. J. Adv. Res. 9(01), 283-288 284 Introduction:-Today"s children are citizens of tomorrow. If their growth and development is neglected and not given enough care and guidance they can"t be the healthy citizens in their future. There is no doubt that media especially television has a great influence on the children from a very young age itself and it will affect the children cognitive and social development. 1 Most children plug into the world of television long before they enter school: 2/3rd of infants and toddlers watch a TV screen on an average of two hours daily. 70% of child-care centres use TV during a typical day. Children under 6 years watch an average of about 2 hours of screen media, Children 6-12 years spend nearly 4 hours a day in front of television screen. In a year, the average child spends 900 hours in school and 1,023 hours infront of a TV. 2 A habit of excessive television viewing can affect the children normal physical and social activities and also violence, smoking, drinking scenes and advertisement of junk food and commercials are widely depicted in television programs without explaining the adverse consequences, the repeated exposure to such programs makes them feel that these activities are normal and quite acceptable.The effects of television on children"s a affects BMI (body mass index), language development, Aggressive behaviour (violence), Night mares and sleep disorders, Obesity and overweight, Risky behaviours (smoking and sex and substance abuse),Attention deficit disorder (academic poor performance), Lack of physical activity. 3 In the first few years of life, children's brains need active interaction with the environment in order to establish healthy neurological pathways that will allow greater learning later in life. "Those pathways are established by a child interacting with his environment." "Education is such an important concern in our society; parents want to know what they can do to help their kids do better in school," "This is one of the simplest, no-cost things they can do. The TV has an off switch." 4 Therefore moderation is quite important to ensure that the television is used as a source of healthy entertainment and for enhancing knowledge. So, it is better to set a time limit for watching television, children should be encouraged to participate in activities like playing and reading books. Before allowing them to watch television program, the parents should take into account the program reviews and television rating, they should be encouraged to watch programs that reinforce family values. As parents are the role models for their children, hence it is equally important to limit their own television watching, to set example for them. 5

Background of the study:
Television is omnipresent in most children"s world. 99% of American households own a television and the average family has 2 more sets, children"s in the United States watch an average of 21-28 hours of television in week. Although seemingly innocuous, greater sedentary life styles, inadequate nutrition, more risk-taking activities and increased antisocial behaviours all have been effect of excessive viewing of television. 5 Children in India now spend about three hours a day infront of the television screen. An average child is estimatedto have watched 5,000 hours of television by the time he orshe enters first grade and 25,000 hours by the end of highschool more time than would be spent in a classroomearning a college degree. 6 Television has become a potent agency of socialization because like the family, school, and peers, it directly providesthe child with experiences which shape their attitudes andinfluence their behaviors. In evaluating television"s influenceon children, it is important to view this medium as an elementin a matrix of influences in a child"s social environment.Television seems to become a growing source of parentalanxiety. Parents worry most of all about the amount and kindsof programs their children watch, and definitely these fearsare legitimate. 6 The American Academy of Paediatrics has recommended no screen media for children < 2 years of age; nevertheless, recent nationally representative data indicate that 68% of children < 2 years of age use screen media on a typical day and one quarter of these children have a television (TV) set in his or her bedroom. Additional data suggest most US born infants < 2 years of age watch between 1 and 2 hours of TV daily. Given the large number of infants who are regularly exposed to TV and the large number of parents who believe that it is good for their development, it is important to determine the effects of TV viewing on the developing cognition of young children. 7 285 Television is an extension of a child"s society and given the fact that the child spends more time with the television than the parents is the child going to grow with the respect of the parents or the television? Not only children, parents are subverting their children in their own living rooms but imprisoning them from educational, physical and religious activities.So, the researcher planned to conduct this study with a view to enhance the knowledge of Parents in controlling and preventing the adverse effects of Television among their children.
Objectives of the study: 1. To assess the level of knowledge of parents regarding effects of television viewing on children before administration of STP. 2. To evaluate the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on effects of television viewing on children among parents. 3. To find out the association between the pre-test knowledge score of parents with selected demographic variables. With regard to source of information, majority of samples, 50 (83.33%) had no information regarding effects of television and 10 (16.67%) had been exposed to mass media. The overall enhancement in mean percentage score was 8.31.The mean post-test knowledge score was significantly higher than mean pre-test knowledge score at (t (59) =19.51) at 0.05 level of significance.  There was a significant association between educational qualification and pre-test knowledge score. The calculated chi square value (χ2=4.31, p<0.05) is more than table value (χ2=3.84), and the chi-square value of number of children in the family was significant. The calculated chi square value (χ2=6.461, p<0.05) is more than table value (χ2=3.84). Hence, it is inferred that there was a significant association between number of children in the family and source of information and knowledge score of subjects. There was no significant association between sex, age, religion, family income, type of family, education and occupation.

Conclusion:-
The findings of this study support the need for conducting health education, counselling and mass awareness programmes on effects of television viewing on children to the public. The study proved that parents had poor knowledge on effects of television viewing on children. After administration of the structured teaching programme their knowledge improved to a remarkable extent. The findings of the study showed that the structured teaching programme was effective in increasing the knowledge of parents regarding effects of television on children.
Recommendation:- Nursing Education The nursing curriculum should consist of knowledge related to effects of television viewing on children among parents and its effective use by different methods of teaching. Nurses at the post graduate level need to develop skills in preparing health teaching materials in child health specialization at the level of parents understanding. Improved and newer techniques have to be used for motivating the parent's participation.

Nursing administration
Nurse as an administrator should plan and organize continuing education program for paediatric nurses to motivate them in conducting teaching programme on effective use of television among parents.
Nursing research: Various studies conducted by researchers showed that negative effects of television on children are very common. It is influenced by variety of factors and it can be reduced only by educating the parents on its effects. Future Research should focus on modification of certain factors like hours of television watching, cultivating good hobbies and healthy family relationships aimed at effective use of television in the development of their children.