INTRODUCTION:

The smart phone has revolutionized, and nowadays it has become an integral part of a child’s life. Compared to previous years, nowadays more children are using smart phone and they are exposed even earlier¹. The smart phone has become much more than a tool for communication as a result of technological advancements. In addition to being used for making calls, they can also be used for social networking, texting or sending pictures, browsing the Internet, viewing videos, and playing games.

Because of this, its widespread use could be detrimental to the young people living in the present society². Smartphone Addiction (SA) is a relatively new behavioural addiction that has emerged in the last few decades, along with other digital addictions such as internet and gaming addiction³. Because younger children differ from older children in terms of their developmental stages and the variables that shape their sedentary habits, there is a lack of data to extrapolate from older children to younger children⁴. Furthermore, as a multicultural country, Indian parents have access to a complex matrix of parenting styles and beliefs that may also affect their child’s smart phone usage due to a combination of environmental and cultural forces⁵. Despite the growing evidence of these risks, there is a lack of comprehensive data specifically exploring mobile phone usage in under five children across various socio-cultural contexts. Exploring maternal knowledge and attitudes can provide valuable insights into the digital parenting landscape⁶.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Materials:

Tool was structured knowledge questionnaire with 9 items in section A for assessment of demographic variables, section B containing 20 MCQ questions for assessing the knowledge in the impact of Mobile phone usage among under five children and Section C containing attitude assessment rating scale consist of five positive and five negative statements which are used to assess the attitude on impact of mobile phone usage among mother’s of under five children. Reliability value of the knowledge assessment questionnaire and attitude rating scale were 0.75 and 0.96 respectively. This tool was developed by researchers and validated by five experts in the field of Paediatricians, Community Health Nursing and Child Health Nursing.

Methods:

Research approach and design: The study was conducted as quantitative research approach with non experimental descriptive design.

Variables:

Study variable is knowledge and attitude on the impact of mobile phone usage among the mother’s of under five children and the socio demographic variables are age of child, age of mother, education of mother, occupation of mother, type of family, number of children, daily screen time exposure, type of mobile content, supervision of children.

Setting of Study:

The study was conducted at selected rural areas of Kottayam district.

Population:

The Population of the study was all the mothers, target Population was the mothers of under five children and the accessible population was the mothers of under five children who are willing to participate in the study.

SAMPLE: The sample was the mothers of under five children and the sample size was 90.

Sampling Technique:

Expected Proportion = 0.63. Desired confidence level (1-alpha) % = 95. Absolute precision (%) = 10. The final sample size was set at 90mothers.In this study, Non probability purposive sampling technique was used for selecting the sample from the population.

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Mother who are available at the time of data collection

2. Mothers who can read and write Malayalam.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Mother who are not willing to participate in the study.

Data Collection Procedure:

The datawas collected after taking the institutional permission and consent from participants. Demographic data and level of knowledge was assessed by using structured knowledge questionnaire and attitude was assessed through attitude assessment rating scale. Self instructional module was given to the participants after assessing their knowledge and attitude.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

Table no 1: Description of subjects according to their demographic variables (n=90)

S. No	Demographic variables	Frequency	Percentage
	Age of child
1	0-1 years	6	6.70%
2	2years – 3 years	43	47.80%
3	3 years – 4 years	31	34.40%
4	4 years – 5 years	10	11.10%
	Age of mothers
1	18 years – 25 years	18	20%
2	26 years – 33 years	57	63%
3	34 years – 41 years	10	11%
4	41 years and more	5	6%
	Education of mothers
1	SSLC	6	6.66%
2	Higher secondary	28	31.11%
3	Degree	44	48.88%
4	Post graduate	12	13.33%
	Occupation of mother
1	House wife	40	44.44%
2	Self employed	20	22.22%
3	Private	24	26.6%
4	Government	6	6.66%
	Type of family
1	Nuclear family	72	80%
2	Joint family	18	20%
3	Single larent	0	0%
	Number of children
1	One child	40	44.4%
2	Two children	38	42.2%
3	Three children	11	12.2%
4	More than three children	1	1.11%
	Daily screen time exposure
1	< 1 hour	41	45.5%
2	1-2 hour	39	43.3%
3	2-4 hour	9	10%
4	>4 hour	1	1.11%
	Supervision of the children
1	10 minutes	43	47.8%
2	30 minutes	31	34.4%
3	1 hour	11	12.22%
4	2 hours	5	5.5%
	Type of mobile phone content
1	Education	6	6.66%
2	Cartoon	43	47.70%
3	Entertainment videos	28	31.10%
4	Games	13	14.40%

Majority of children (47.80%) were in the age group of 2-3 yrs. And majority 63% of mothers belongs to the age group of 26-33 years. Most of them (48.88%) were graduates and half of the mothers were housewives. Most of them belongs to nuclear family and Nearly half of the subjects (44.4%) had only 1 child. Only 1.11% of children spent screen time more than 4 hours and only 5.5% of mothers were supervised their children more than 2 hours.

Table no 2. Knowledge level of subjects regarding the impact of mobile phone usage among under five children.

Level of knowledge	Frequency	Percentage
Excellent	25	27.77%
Good	42	46.66%
Average	23	25.55%
Poor	0	0

The findings revealed that the majority of mothers (46.66%) had good knowledge

Table no 3. Attitude regarding the impact of mobile phone usage among the mothers of under five children

Attitude level	Frequency	Percentage
Positive attitude	65	72.22%
Neutral attitude	25	27.77%
Negative attitude	0	0

The findings revealed that majority of the mother’s (72.22%) had positive attitude.

Table 4: correlation between the knowledge and attitude regarding the impact of mobile phone usage among the mother’s of under five children.

Variables	Correlation coefficient
Knowledge	0.0468
Attitude	0.0468

In the study, there is a moderate to positive correlation between knowledge and attitude regarding the impact of mobile phone usage among the mother’s of under five children.

Table 5: Association between knowledge of mothers of under five children and demographic variables

Variables	Category	Poor	Average	Good	Excellent	Chi square
Age of children	0-1 years	0	2	8	6	5.62
	2-3 years	0	11	20	15
	3-4 years	0	2	8	9
	4-5 years	0	1	2	6
Age of mother	18-25 years	0	2	9	6	3.43
	26-33 years	0	16	27	15
	34-41 years	0	3	3	4
	41 and more years	0	1	3	1
Education of mother	SSLC	0	2	5	0	16.93
	Higher secondary	0	7	16	4
	Degree	0	14	17	13
	Post graduate	0	0	4	8
Occupation of mother	House wife	0	12	20	8	8.72
	Self employee	0	5	9	3
	Private employee	0	3	11	12
	Government employee	0	3	2	2
Type of family	Nuclear family	0	18	36	18	1.90
	Joint family	0	5	6	7
	Single parent	0	0	0	0
Number of children	1 child	0	13	17	11	4.59
	2 children	0	8	18	10
	3 children	0	2	7	3
	More than 3 children	0	0	0	1
Daily screen time exposure	<1 hour	0	9	20	11	3.37
	1-2 hours	0	12	19	9
	2-4 hours	0	2	3	4
	>4 hours	0	0	1	0
Type of content	Educational	0	3	2	1	3.36
	Cartoon	0	6	22	14
	Entertainment videos	0	9	11	7
	Games	0	5	7	3
Supervision of children	10 minutes	0	12	19	13	9.87
	30 minutes	0	11	13	10
	1 hour	0	0	8	1
	2 hours	0	1	1	1

The findings revealed that there is a significant association present between the knowledge and education of mothers of under five children.

Table 6: Association between attitude of mothers of under five children with demographic variables

Variables	Category	Positive attitude	Neutral attitude	Negative attitude	Chi square
Age of children	0-1 years	13	4	0	10.86
	2-3 years	46	12	0
	3-4 years	5	5	0
	4-5 years	1	4	0
Age of mother	18-25 years	12	5	0	2.56
	26-33 years	47	11	0
	34-41 years	6	4	0
	41 and more years	4	1	0
Education of mother	SSLC	2	5	0	12.88
	Higher secondary	21	7	0
	Degree	34	9	0
	Post graduate	12	0	0
Occupation of mother	House wife	32	10	0	3.28
	Self employee	11	5	0
	Private employee	22	4	0
	Government employee	6	0	0
Type of family	Nuclear family	55	17	0	0.015
	Joint family	14	4	0
	Single parent	0	0	0
Number of children	1 child	31	10	0	2.68
	2 children	25	10	0
	3 children	11	1	0
	More than 3 children	2	0	0
Daily screen time exposure	<1 hour	28	12	0	1.153
	1-2 hours	31	8	0
	2-4 hours	7	3	0
	>4 hours	1	0	0
Type of content	Educational	4	3	0	1.615
	Cartoon	32	9	0
	Entertainment videos	20	7	0
	Games	12	3	0
Supervision of children	10 minutes	35	12	0	0.831
	30 minutes	26	7	0
	1 hour	6	2	0
	2 hours	2	0	0

The findings revealed that there is a significant association present between attitude and education of mothers of under five children.