EFFECTIVENESS OF STP ON KNOWLEDGE OF PARENTS REGARDING ADVERSE EFFECTS OF TELEVISION IN CHILDREN

Background of the study: Children of this generation addicted to the evil of society called Television and Mobile phone. The excessive viewing of TV may leads to Childhood obesity, Vision problems, Behavioral and Social maladjustments, decreased physical activity in children etc. Report suggested 85% of the food habits in children were based on Television and its advertisements. 62% of the behavioral problems in children are due to adverse effects of television. Objectives of the study: To evaluate the effectiveness of STP on knowledge of parents regarding Adverse effects of Television in children. Methodology:The research approach used in this study was Evaluative in nature and design adopted was pre experimental single group pre test -post test design. Total of 60 parents were selected by using Convenience sampling technique.A structured online questionnaire method was used to assess the knowledge of parents regarding effects of television viewing on children. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: 37(55%) of the subjects in the pre-test had moderate knowledge regarding effects of television viewing on children, whereas in the post-test all the subjects (100%) had scored between 23 and 29 indicating good knowledge. The mean post-test knowledge score was significantly higher than mean pre-test knowledge score (t =19.51) at 0.05 level of significance. There was significant association between participants pre test knowledge scores with their educational qualification, number of children in the family and source of information. Conclusion: The study proved that parents had poor knowledge on effects of television viewing on children. After administration of the structured teaching programme their knowledge improved to a remarkable extent. The findings of the study showed that the structured teaching programme was effective in increasing the knowledge of parents regarding effects of television on children.