A STUDY OF CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOUR IN RELATION TO FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND TECHNOLOGICAL EXPOSURE AT PRE PRIMARY STAGE

Abstract

The present study to assesses the impact of family structure, family environment and technology exposure on the behaviour of children at pre primary stage. 400 students from four schools of Jalandhar city (India) were selected on the basis of their family structure, reputation and socio-economic status as the sample for the study. Family environment scale by Bhatia and Chadha (1993) was used to measure the family environment of the students. Technology exposure inventory was prepared by the investigator to measure the technology exposure of the students. Eyberg's Child Behaviour Inventory (1998) was employed to measure the behaviour of the children. A 2X2X2 factorial design was employed for data analysis. The findings of the study reveal that children living in joint families show better behaviour and have less behavioural problems than children living in nuclear families. Child behaviour is better in families with good family environment than in families with poor family environment. The behaviour of children is better in families with less than 2 hours of technological exposure than in family with more than 2 hours of technological exposure. Children belonging to joint family and poor family environments and who were more exposed to technology were found to have more problems than children belonging to good family environment with less exposure to technology in joint as well as nuclear families.