Investigation of parents' views about preschool age children technology use

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate parents' views about Preschool Age Kids technology use. For this reason, the author tried to investigate whether there is a difference on parent's views based on gender, school type, age, education level, internet connection, and the frequency of computer use variables. The quantitative survey method was used in this study. The population of the research is consisted of parents who have kids at preschool age. The author applied cluster random sampling in the study. The sample of the study was consisted of 314 parents who have children at preschool age in the city of Kütahya. The data was collected through parents' views about preschool kid's technology use questionnaire which was developed by the author. Based on the findings, the study articulated that parents believed that parental guidance is very important while preschool kids are using technology. Another finding of the study is parents' negative attitudes toward technology use. Parents articulated that technology use in preschool age has negative effects on child's physical, mental, emotional and social growth. However, parents mentioned that their children have skills to use technology and they can easily reach technological tool at home. In addition male parents have more positive attitudes toward technology use at preschool age then female parents. Parents who have children at public kindergarten have more positive attitudes about technology use than parents who have children at private kindergarten. There is no significant difference between parents' views based on their age. Key Words: Pre-school period, technology use, parents' views.