A Descriptive Study to Assess Screen Viewing and Sleeping Hours among High and Low Achievers School Children (From Standard 3-Standard 7) in Selected Schools at Mangalore

Our young children live in this world of interactive media. They are completely at ease with digital devices and they know how to use them. These devices help children in many ways too. Playing games increases the hand - eye co-ordination of the children and develops skills like problem solving, analytical estimation and quick decision making. Media affects the children in a negative way too. There are many controversies in the perception of media by children. The children spent most of their leisure time by watching movies, playing video or computer games or spending time on the internet. More than 50 years of media research and thousands of media effects shows that children's aggressive behaviour, academic performances, obesity, sleeping disorders and sleep disturbances are directly linked to the injudicious use of media.

Aim

The aim of the study is to assess screen viewing and sleeping hours among high and low achievers school children (from standard 3 - standard 7) in selected schools at Mangalore

Method

The research approach used for the study was descriptive research approach. Stratified random sampling technique was used to draw 100 school children. Data was collected by administering a structured rating scale on screen viewing and sleeping hours. The collected data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results

The findings of the study highlights that the calculated correlation coefficient of high achievers screen viewing and sleeping hours was -0.071 and for low achievers it was 0.093.Chi-square test was used to find the significant association of performance of the students with selected demographic variables. There was a significant association of high achievers age, class, and study hours with performance of the school children and in low achievers, significant association of age and class with performance of the school children. But there was a no significant association of sleeping hours of high and low achievers with their demographic variables.

Interpretation and conclusion

The findings of the study concluded that there is a relationship between school children's screen viewing and sleeping hours with academic performance. So giving time limitations for screen viewing would help to reduce sleep disturbances and improve academic performance of school children.