Comparison of problematic media use and affecting factors in children from two different socioeconomic regions

The aim of this study is to determine problematic media use and the influencing factors in children from two different socioeconomic regions and to compare them. The research was designed using a quantitative method, and interviews were conducted with the parents of 514 children. The participants of the study consisted of parents of 127 children registered at the Sur Dabanoğlu Family Health Center in Sur district of Diyarbakır province, and parents of 387 children registered at the 15 Temmuz Family Health Center in Kayapınar district. Data collection was carried out using a data form p repared by the researcher, aiming to obtain socio-demographic information about the child and parents, parents' media usage status, attitudes towards the child's media usage, data related to the child's media usage, and information about time spent apart from media usage. The Short Form of the Problematic Media Use Scale was also utilized. According to the findings of the research, it was observed that as parental age, number of siblings, daily media usage time of parents, number of smartphones at home, and the time the child spends indoors during weekdays and weekends, as well as media usage time, increase, the scale score of problematic media usage also increases. However, no significant difference was found between the two socioeconomic regions in terms of scale score. The results are discussed in relation to the relevant literature.