Journal of Health Science and Medical Therapy E-ISSN 3024-8132 P-ISSN 3024-8116 Volume 3 Issue 01.
January 2025.
Pp.
DOI: https://doi.
org/10.
59653/jhsmt.
Copyright by Author Overview Impact of Gadget on Mental Emotional Health of Preschool Age Children in Bukittinggi Del Fatma Wati1*.
Meri Amelia Putri2 Fort De Kock University.
Indonesia1 Fort De Kock University.
Indonesia2 Corresponding Email: delfatmawati@fdk.
Received:19-11-2024 Reviewed: 03-12-2024 Accepted: 20-12-2024 Abstract Various factors influence the mental and emotional development of preschool children.
Currently, preschool children are often exposed to gadgets.
Children are usually more interested in gadgets than their peers or family.
The success of the emotional development of preschool children should be optimized by managing and recognizing their emotions in their social environment.
This research explores gadgets' impact on emotional and mental health in preschool-age children in Bukittinggi using a qualitative research method with a phenomenological approach.
The informants of this study were taken by purposive sampling, totaling 6 people.
The result of the analysis contained several themes, namely, .
lack of attention and supervision in playing with gadgets, .
bad behavior due to gadgets, and .
psychological changes in children.
Conclusion This study shows that the use of gadgets by preschool children should be controlled and accompanied.
Parents can divert attention from playing gadgets by introducing traditional games because they can stimulate the development of emotional skills in children.
Keywords: Gadget Impact.
Emotional and Mental Health.
Preschool-Aged Children.
Parental Role Introduction Good mental health in preschool children before being affected by gadgets, children are able to interact well with others, are able to manage emotions, have positive social relationships with peers, and have problem-solving skills, while children who are addicted to gadgets will cause negative mental health such as children will experience conditions of anger, fear, jealousy, anxiety, and envy (Damaiyanti et al.
, 2.
The 2019 World Health Organization (WHO) report shows that worldwide 10-20% of children and adolescents experience mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and behavioral disorders.
As many as 5-25% of school-age children experience impaired motor development, language, and emotional aspects and social behavior, increasing in recent years globally reported children who experience Journal of Health Science and Medical Therapy anxiety disorders around 8-10% of children experience emotional easily, and behavioral disorders 9-15%.
From the data above.
WHO said that the mental health effects that occur are caused by the use of gadgets for around 93.
52% of preschool children aged 4-5 years.
general, children tend to use the internet for social media, including platforms such as YouTube and playing online games.
(Agustin et al.
According to research by Mubasyiroh .
, preschool children show signs of emotional and mental problems, such as feeling lonely, anxious, afraid, and angry.
This is caused by the negative impact of gadget use.
Emotional mental health problems that arise are children who do not want to interact with other people, children who feel sad, and children who often get angry for no reason (Rizkiah et al.
, 2.
Technological advances in Indonesia have developed rapidly over time.
Various innovations have occurred since the emergence of mobile phones, which are more commonly known as gadgets.
Almost always, all levels of society, both those in the upper middle economic category and the lower middle economic category, now have access to gadgets (Ishariani, 2.
Currently, gadgets have become a basic need for someone to get information or access to various countries.
Gadgets are able to provide high access speeds without constraints, costs, and time (Soliha, 2.
Indonesia itself is the most active country in Asia in terms of using gadgets because almost 2/3 of Indonesian citizens already use gadgets.
Based on data from the Puslitbang Aptika IKP Kominfo 2022, the Sumatra region has a significant negative impact on age groups, including adults, and teenagers have gadgets, which is around 84.
(Agustin et , 2.
Children are busy playing with gadgets.
when asked, they will scream, cry, and stamp their feet.
15% When children are not given gadgets, they will cry continuously to their parents to borrow gadgets.
it has been found that their children are free to play with gadgets for more than 1-4 hours.
At the same time, 15% of parents provide supervision and time limits for playing gadgets.
When this incident continues to have a negative impact with a percentage of 50% of emotional and mental disorders in children, such as experiencing a lack of children's ability to interact directly with others, decreased creativity, unwillingness to interact with peers, disturbed sleep patterns, irritability, irritability, disappointment, sadness, increased anxiety, and feelings of restlessness.
20% of parents said the main reason for giving children gadgets was so that children would not be fussy and parents could do their work.
So researchers are interested in studying the Impact of Gadgets on the Emotional and Mental Health of Preschool Children in Bukittinggi.
Literature Review Damaiyanti.
Pratama.
, & Destri.
The Relationship between Duration of Gadget Use and Emotional Development of Preschool Children.
Proceedings of the Pioneer Health Seminar, 3.
, 37Ae45.
The results of the study showed that the duration of playing with gadgets greatly affects the development of children's emotional mentality.
Overview Impact of Gadget on Mental Emotional Health of Preschool Age Children in Bukittinggi Agustin.
Zen.
, & Wibowo.
The Relationship between Duration of Gadget Use and Mental Emotional Problems in Preschool Children at Aba Kindergarten.
Ciamis District.
Ciamis Regency in 2021.
Galuh Nursing Journal, 4.
, 53.
The results of the study showed that 42 people .
0%) and most of the children had mental-emotional problems, meaning that there was a relationship between the duration of gadget use and mental-emotional problems in preschool children.
Research Method This research is qualitative research with a phenomenological approach.
Participants in this study were 6 people.
Sampling using purposive sampling technique, the sample was selected according to the criteria and objectives of the researcher until data saturation.
Data analysis in this study used Colaizzi analysis: the stages of data analysis include .
reading transcripts, .
extracting significant statements, .
interpreting statements, .
grouping the meanings extracted into themes, .
obtaining descriptions based on phenomena, .
reporting the importance of phenomena, and .
verifying findings.
Results and Discussion Participant Characteristics Table 4.
1 Participant Characteristics Initial Age Gender Intensity of gadget use .
5 th Boy No Time Limit 5 th Boy High .
-5 .
5 th Girl High .
-4 .
5 th Girl High .
-5 .
5 th Boy High .
- 4 .
5 th Boy High.
- 4 .
Theme 1: Lack of parental attention and supervision of children playing with gadgets from an early age and the impacts caused by playing with gadgets.
Participants do not know the health impacts caused by gadgets, so they continue to use gadgets without using time limits, which will have an impact on a person's emotional health.
These changes disrupt emotions, physical changes, and other health.
Parents supervise their children's activities related to gadget use directly or indirectly because this is important to minimize the risk of negative impacts that may arise.
In dealing with addiction problems in children, most parents tend to apply direct supervision by regulating and limiting the content that children can access when using gadgets.
The results of Vivi Sofya's study .
show that the higher the information or knowledge obtained about the dangers or impacts caused by gadgets on emotional and mental health in preschool children, the less impact will arise (Afdalia & Gani, 2.
Supervision of gadgets used by children has an important impact on the learning process and children's interaction with their environment.
Journal of Health Science and Medical Therapy Parents can give children some rules about using gadgets as a form of supervision over the use of these gadgets.
The role of parents in the family environment is of great importance in taking care of, guiding, and teaching children, especially those who are still preschool age.
Currently, many children use gadgets, and parents even introduce gadgets at an early age.
Currently, many parents tend to use gadgets as a tool to educate their children.
However, if the use of gadgets is not supervised or accompanied by parents, children can tend to continue playing with gadgets, which can cause detrimental dependency on children (H.
Wulandari et , 2.
Researchers say that preschool children use gadgets a lot, and this is because parents give them gadgets when they are busy with work.
However, on the other hand, parents are not involved enough in supervising their children when playing with gadgets, so parents do not know the impacts caused by gadgets.
The use of gadgets by children without parental supervision will have a negative impact on the child's social and emotional development.
When children reach this stage, when their desire to play with gadgets is not fulfilled, many parents say that their children throw tantrums, cry, struggle, get angry for no reason, and disturb their parents' work to demand their desire to play with gadgets.
In some of the statements above, researchers assume that preschool children have a high sense of curiosity supported by the features of gadgets and are easy to use, so parents must set limits for their children when playing with their gadgets and provide full supervision of their children when playing with gadgets.
Because children at preschool age cannot think rationally, parents play an important role in character formation in children.
(Wulandari, 2.
Theme 2: There is bad behavior due to gadgets Research conducted by researchers said that the duration of gadget use in preschool children greatly affects the mental and emotional development of most parents who say their children who use gadgets in a day starting from 1-3 hours a day can even play with gadgets all The reason children play with gadgets for a long time is that parents do not supervise or control children in playing with gadgets.
Children's use of gadgets should be controlled because it will make it difficult for them to stop using gadgets.
Likewise, in the study entitled The Influence of Gadgets on Children's Mental Emotions, it is explained that the intensity of gadget use in preschool children greatly determines the character of the child himself (Wulandari.
Parents need to reduce the duration of time children spend using gadgets by introducing traditional games.
In addition, it is important for parents to understand the risks that may arise due to their children's excessive use of gadgets.
The presence of parents can anticipate the negative impacts of gadget use on children by limiting the time they use gadgets and supervising access to information that is useful for the learning and knowledge of these children.
This also includes efforts to prevent access to sites that are detrimental to child development (Febria, 2.
In line with research conducted by (Chikmah, 2.
regarding the Impact of Gadget Usage Duration on Emotional and Mental Health in Preschool Children in Tegal Kindergarten 2021, research findings show that excessive use of gadgets can cause preschool children to become addicted.
According to the researcher himself, there are several Overview Impact of Gadget on Mental Emotional Health of Preschool Age Children in Bukittinggi factors that influence so that it can cause behavioral changes or psychological changes in children, namely, children begin to interact less with their parents or peers, children begin to fight and swear at their parents, sleep pattern disorders, eating disorders, at risk of addiction, lack of social interaction, and children have the potential for social isolation.
Meanwhile, psychological changes that occur in preschool children are getting angry, sad, often getting angry for no reason, easily disappointed, afraid, and anxious.
The negative impact of playing with gadgets for children is very potentially dangerous, such as making children too lazy to study, having difficulty interacting with the social environment, rude behavior, fighting against parents, having difficulty concentrating in lessons, the risk of vision damage and ultimately children imitating negative behavior that is not appropriate (Ishariani, 2.
Researchers assume that the use of gadgets in children without parental supervision will have a negative impact on the child's social and emotional When children have reached this stage, when their desire to play with gadgets is not fulfilled, many parents say that their children throw tantrums, cry, struggle, get angry for no reason, and interfere with their parents' work to demand their desire to play with gadgets.
Theme 3: Psychological changes in children According to research conducted by Darmiah .
, it was revealed that the factors that influence children's emotional development involve the child's own condition, such as the continuity of basic needs and living conditions.
This has an impact on the acceleration of children's emotional development.
This is in line with the research conducted, namely, the Effect of Gadget Use on the Mental and Emotional Health of Preschool Children, where the results of the study showed that children who experience abnormalities in mental and emotional health could be seen from their behavior where the results of the study showed that children who experience abnormalities in their mental and emotional health could be seen from their behavior which is most often done is avoiding peers or family members, getting angry for no reason, crying, hitting parents to ask for gadgets, rebelling, even swearing at their parents (Anzani et al.
, 2.
Children's behavior changes after being introduced to gadgets, becoming more difficult to call and difficult to command.
The reason may be that, as explained by Yudiningrum .
, children's interaction with electronic technology reduces many physical activities or sedentary behavior because technology aims to make human life easier, which in turn can limit their Research conducted by researchers at Bukittinggi said that currently, many parents are less concerned about their children using gadgets because when children use gadgets, they can be calm and not fussy.
The use of gadgets in children without parental supervision will have a negative impact on the child's social and emotional development.
When children have reached this stage, when their desire to play with gadgets is not fulfilled, many parents say that their children throw tantrums, cry, struggle, get angry for no reason, and interfere with their parents' work to demand their desire to play with gadgets.
Some parents even say that children rebel against their parents, even children say dirty words to their parents.
besides these changes, children also often play with gadgets alone, do not want to be friends or interact with peers, and often get angry and emotional for no reason.
Journal of Health Science and Medical Therapy and even skip school because of gadgets.
The development of mental and emotional health problems is not only influenced by children's exposure to gadgets but also by the role of parents.
Parental involvement, especially maternal knowledge, has a significant impact on children's emotional development.
The higher a mother's knowledge in stimulating the development of a child's personality by introducing various activities and games that trigger children's exploration and creativity towards their surroundings, without relying on gadgets, the better the social development and emotional and mental health expected for preschool age.
Conclusion Lack of attention and supervision from parents in providing gadgets to pre-school aged children has a negative impact on the mental and emotional health of pre-school aged children.
From the results of research at children's playground schools in Bukittinggi, it was found that children do not want to interact with peers or parents, easily rebel by asking for gadgets, and are able to fight against their parents until the child says dirty things to their parents, hits their parents, crying, screaming, getting angry for no reason.
This study can conclude that there is a need for parents to pay attention and supervise their children when providing gadgets to them so that the child's emotional and mental health will have an impact on the child's mental growth in the future.
Declaration of conflicting interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest in this work.
References