Regulation of The Use of Gadgets During the Covid-19 Pandemic is Needed to Prevent Emotional Problems in Children

Abstract

Background: The number of children's use of gadgets during the COVID-19 pandemic has increased due to the quarantine policy by the government so it has an impact on children's emotional problems. Objective: To determine the relationship between the use of gadgets during the COVID-19 pandemic on children's emotional problems based on the duration of use and ownership of gadgets. Methods: This study used an observational analytic design with a cross-sectional method. The research instrument used an online questionnaire. The sampling method used is simple random sampling. The independent variable is the duration of gadget use and gadget ownership, while the dependent variable is the child's emotional problem. The duration of gadget use is categorized into less than 2 hours and more than 2 hours per day. Ownership of gadgets is categorized as self-owned or not. Emotional problems were categorized by severity (none, mild, severe). Data analysis with Mann-Whitney test using SPSS 25. Results: The number of respondents was 116 children, 13 men (9,56%), and 123 women (91,44%), aged 6-12 years 13 people (9,56%) and 13-18 years old 123 people (91,44%), have their own gadget 2 people (1,5%) and do not have a gadget 134 people (98,5%), the duration of using gadgets is less than 2 hours per day 28 people (20,6%) and more than 2 hours per day 108 people (79,4%). Based on the Mann-Whitney test, there is a relationship between the duration of using gadgets and the level of children's emotional problems (p = 0,017), while gadget ownership is not associated with children's emotional problems (p = 0,431). Conclusion: Regulation is needed to limit the duration of gadget use during the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent children's emotional problems.