Digital play addiction and interactive peer play behaviors in preschool children

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine preschool children's digital play addiction tendencies and interactive peer play behaviors according to various variables and to determine the predictive power of interactive peer play behaviors on children's digital play addiction tendencies. The research was conducted using the survey model, which is one of the quantitative research methods. A total of 301 children aged 4-5 years from the central districts of Mersin province were included in the study through simple random sampling. This research was conducted using information provided by parents on behalf of their children. Data were collected from 301 parents, who participated in the study. The Parent Form of the Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale and the Digital Play Addiction Tendency Scale were used as data collection instruments. Kruskal-Wallis H test, Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman correlation analysis, and Multiple Hierarchical Regression Analysis were used for data analysis. According to the analyses, it was determined that the levels of digital play addiction tendencies in preschool children were "low". In addition, it was determined that the conflict level of digital play addiction of boys was higher than that of girls. It has been found that children's tendencies towards digital play addiction differ depending on the number of siblings and mother's education level. It was also found that the peer play interactions of five-year-old children were higher than those of four-year-old children; and that they differed according to familial variables. Finally, it was observed that there was a negative relationship between children's peer play interaction and their tendencies towards digital play addiction, and a positive relationship between disruptive play and play disengagement with their play behaviors.