The Influence of Sociodemographic Factors on Mobile Device Use among Young Children in Putrajaya, Malaysia

Abstract

Technology is evolving rapidly around the world, and the use of mobile devices is increasing every day. Today, everyone owns a mobile device, including young children. Parents provide and allow young children to use mobile devices for various purposes. Due to the fact of these circumstances, children begin to become comfortable with the use of mobile devices, and they are prone to excessive use. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the influence of sociodemographic factors on excessive mobile device use among young children. Sociodemographic variables, including the child’s gender, the child’s age when starting to use a mobile device, the parent’s educational level, household income, type of application used, and the purpose of giving a mobile device to the child, were selected as predictive factors. A cross-sectional survey study design with a quantitative approach was conducted. A simple random sampling technique was employed, and a total of 364 parents completed the adapted questionnaire, namely, the Problematic Mobile Phone Use Scale (PMPUS). Data were statistically analyzed using descriptive and binary logistic regression analysis. The findings revealed that gender, age of the child when starting to use mobile devices, and purpose of parents providing mobile devices significantly contributed to 77.7% of the variance to make children users with a problem. However, the parent’s educational level, household income, and type of application did not significantly contribute to the problem of mobile device use. Later, this study discusses the research implication, limitation, and recommendation for future research based on the finding.