Assessment of mothers' knowledge and attitude regarding digital media addiction effectiveness on their child health

Excessive using of digital media tends to be harm to children’s attitudes, behavior, and growth. Mothers’ awareness and understanding of these risks are essential. Aim: The study aimed to assess of mother's knowledge and attitude regarding digital media addiction and its effect on their child's health. Methods: A descriptive research design was utilized. Setting: This study was conducted at four urban and four rural primary schools from 365 school at Fayoum city. Subjects: A purposive sample composed of (384) mothers and their children from both sex and from 6 to 12 years. Tools: Two tools were used for data collection, 1st tool: A structured interview questionnaire with three parts; characteristics of the study subject, negative effect of digital media on the children health and Mothers’ knowledge about digital media addiction and the second one. 2nd tool: Mothers’ Attitude Likert scale. Results: more than two thirds of the studied mothers had unsatisfactory knowledge regarding digital media used by their children. 73.2% of the studied mothers had negative attitude regarding digital media used by their children. Also, there was negative correlation among total attitude score and knowledge with effectiveness of child addiction to digital media and a positive correlation between total attitude and total knowledge score Conclusion: Based on results of the present study about three quarter of the studied mothers had total negative attitude regarding digital media used by their children. 52.6 % of studied children had harm effect of digital media time on their health. Recommendation: Continuous health education program for mothers about safety screen viewing time exposure.