Digital game addiction of preschool children in the Covid-19 pandemic: social emotional development and parental guidance

Abstract

The Covid 19 pandemic has caused children to spend more time at home and an increase in their digital addiction tendencies. Children’s digital game addictions were affected by parents’ strategies and negatively affected their social and emotional development. The study was carried out in order to determine the digital game addiction tendency levels of children and the strategies applied by the parents, and to examine the correlation between the results obtained and the social-emotional development of the children. The study was designed as a cross-sectional study. 142 children attending pre-school education for 60–72 months were included in the study. Personal Information Form, Digital Game Addiction Tendency Scale, Digital Game Parental Mediation Scale and Ages & Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional were used. As a result, the increase in digital game addiction in children has negatively affected social and emotional development. The level of digital game addiction tendency is associated with parents’ digital game manipulation strategies. Active parental guidance strategy prevented children’s digital game addiction tendency, while digital oriented guidance and free parental strategies increased addiction tendency.

The More Digital You Are, The More Your Child is Addicted to Digital Games: A Correlational Study

“…This result is not in line with the findings of current study. As a matter of fact, in the study conducted by Şenol, Şenol and Yaşar (2024), the level of digital game addiction tendency is related to parents' digital game manipulation strategies. He stated that active parental guidance strategy prevents children's tendency towards digital game addiction, while digital-focused guidance and free parental strategies increase the tendency towards addiction.…”

The Role of Self-Regulation Skills and Digital Game Addiction Tendencies in Predicting Preschool Children's Prosocial Behaviors

“…In their research, Gözüm and Kandır (2020b) revealed that as the duration of digital game play of preschool children increased, their tendency to play and their concentration level decreased. Şenol, Şenol and Can-Yaşar (2023) found that digital game addiction tendencies increased and their social-emotional development was negatively affected due to the fact that children could not find the opportunity to open up to the environment during the Covid-19 pandemic.…”

The Relationship between Parents’ Social Comparison Orientation and Educational Anxiety of Preschool Children Aged 2-5 Years Old in A District of Jilin Province, China: the Mediating Role of Parental Educational Expectations

“…In this survey, more than 80% of parents of young children were anxious about their children's education (Fan et al, 2024). Children in early childhood develop rapidly in cognitive, emotional and social skills (Bhavnani et al, 2021;Brodin & Renblad, 2020;Nguyen et al, 2020;Şenol et al, 2023). As children approach the age of entering elementary school, parents have increasingly high expectations of their children in terms of their learning, life, physical and mental preparations.…”