• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.15 no.10
• /
• pp.647-657
• /
• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate how young children's excessive immersion in smartphone games affects their prosocial and problematic behavior. To achieve the purpose, a qustionnaire survey was conducted with 147 children aged 3 to 5 going to two kindergartens and two child-care centers which were judged to have similar social and economic conditions, their mothers, and 16 teachers in charge of them. For data processing, SPSS 18.0 program was used to conduct frequency analysis, correlation analysis, and simple regression analysis. The study results were presented as follows. First, the more seriously the young children had excessive immersion in smartphone games, the more negatively their prosocial behavior was influenced. Secondly, the more severely the young children had excessive immersion in smartphone games, the more problematic behavior the young children had. This study is meaningful in the point that it analyzed the impact of their addiction in smartphone games on their prosocial and problematic behavior, and thereby helped to improve a plan of effectively using smartphones as educational media.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
• /
• v.14 no.5
• /
• pp.117-136
• /
• 2018

Objective: This study examined the mediating roles of preschoolers' self-regulation in the relationship between maternal parenting behaviors and preschoolers' excessive immersion in smartphones. Methods: A total of 268 mothers of preschoolers responded to questionnaires on three research variables. Data were analyzed by correlation analyses and regression analyses. Results: First, maternal warmth/encouragement was negatively related to preschoolers' excessive immersion in smartphones, while maternal overprotectiveness/permission and rejection/neglect were positively related to preschoolers' excessive immersion in smartphones. Second, maternal warmth/encouragement and limit setting were positively linked to preschoolers' self-regulation, but maternal overprotectiveness/permission and rejection/neglect were negatively linked to preschoolers' self-regulation. Third, preschoolers' self-regulation was negatively associated with their excessive immersion in smartphones. Finally, preschoolers' self-regulation fully mediated the relationship between maternal warmth/encouragement and preschoolers' excessive immersion in smartphones, and preschoolers' self-regulation partially mediated the relationship between maternal overprotectiveness/permission, rejection/neglect and preschoolers' excessive immersion in smartphones. Conclusion/Implications: The results of this study suggest that positive maternal parenting behaviors and preschoolers' effective self-regulation are important in order to decrease preschoolers' smartphone overuse. These findings provide empirical evidence to develop programs for prevention and intervention of preschoolers' smartphone addiction.