Mental Health Status Among Preschooler Children with Gadget Use

Habitual

Abstract
Parenting in this digital era, has increasing the tendency of gadget use in children which
can give both negative and positive impact. One of the negative impacts of gadget use
among children is the mental health problem. This study aims to determine the
correlation between gadget use habitual based on American Academy of Pediatric’s
(AAP) recommendations, with mental health status based on Kuesioner Masalah Mental
Emosional (KMEE). This study is observational analytic, through the cross-sectional
approach to 70 preschooler children in Bandung Wetan district using random cluster
sampling. The result of this study showed nine children start using the gadget since their
age is younger than 18 months, YouTube is the common application used, 34 children
are watching cartoon and music video, six children are playing games with violent
content, and 36 children have disoriented mental health status. Data analyzed by Chi-
Square and showed there’s no correlation between gadget use habitual based on onset
with mental health status, type of application, nor content of the application.
Inappropriate gadget use in children based on AAP recommendations could give the
negative impact for children’s mental health.

Keywords: gadget, mental health, preschool