The Negative Effects of Using Smart Devices on the Physic land Psychological Health of Palestinian Children aged (13-16) years from their Perspective

Abstract

The study aimed to explore the negative effects of using smart devices on the physical and psychological health of children aged (13-16) years from their perspective. The study was applied to a random sample of children aged (13-16), consisting of (102) male and female students. The descriptive method was used to answer the study questions, and a questionnaire was developed to collect data, which contains (3) sections, first section asked about the most used and preferred devices by children aged (13-16) years, and the number of hours the child used the smart device, the second one asked about the negative effects of using the smart devices on the physical and psychological health of children aged (13-16) years from their perspective, and the third section is an open question to know other negative effects of using the smart devices on the physical and psychological health of children aged (13-16) years. The study achieved a set of results, such as the smartphones are the most used and preferred devices by children aged (13-16) years, where (57%) of the study sample preferred to use, and there is (86.3%) of children aged (13-16) use these devices at average from 4 up to 6 hours daily. The responders highly agreed upon the negative effects of the use of smart devices on the physical health with average (4.2); which is a high degree, also the responders highly agreed upon the negative effects of the use of smart devices on the physiological health with average is (3.73) which is also high, added there are other effects caused by the use of smart devices for long hours on children aged (13-16); the low rate of family discussions, and causes the low writing skills for child. Depending on the results of the study, the researcher recommends that: researchers should conduct a correlative study to know the relationship between the effects and the number of hours of daily use of devices; families should rationalize the use of smart devices.