INTRODUCTION:

Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to legal adulthood, adolescence is usually associated with the teenage years.¹

As per UNICEF Adolescence is also a time of exploration of their own and others capabilities, potentials and experimentation; be it in sexual relationships or alcohol and tobacco use or risk taking e.g.,” no hands driving, misusing new technologies,” at this stage, media and peer exert a powerful influence.² The adoption of the mobile phone by young people has been a global phenomenon in recent years. It is now an integral part of adolescents’ daily lives and is for the majority, the most popular form of electronic communication. Mobile has changed the way of living and In fact, the mobile phone has turned from a technological tool to a social tool. Young people use the mobile phone in positive ways to organize and maintain their social networks. However, there are also negative impacts on young peoples’ peer relationships. These can include ostracism and cyber bullying. The impact of the mobile phone on the school as an institution has not however, received as much research. Disruptions to lessons, incidences of cheating and bullying are some of the negative impacts.Along with this it also got some other physical impacts, electromagnetic field generated from the cellular phones on the human brain has received little attention for years. Accumulating evidence indicate that the microwave radiation from mobile phones may cause serious disease and disturbance in the physiology. This includes an increased risk for cancer, genetic damage, disturbed brain functions and other effects. It also has many negative impacts on the society. Such as increased cyber crime, social violence, road traffic accidents atc.³

NEED FOR THE STUDY:

The cell phones has rapidly become an integral and for some, an essential tool in our daily life enabling an easy communication with everyone at any place and any moment. The popularity of cell phones among people is not unique for India. But it is a worldwide phenomenon the formation at a global youth culture among.India’s telecommunication network is the second largest in the world based on the total number of telephone users. India telecom industry underwent a high pace of market liberalization and growth. Over 846 million subscribers in the year 2011, the total number of mobile subscribers has increased rapidly to over 929.37 million subscribers as of May 2012. It has the world’s third largest internet user base with over 137 million as of June 2012.

A report says mobile phone usage by age categories 14-17 years of age group used 82%, 18-24 years of age group used 94%, 25-39 years of age group used 91%, and 40-54 years of age group used 87%, more than 55 years of age group used 66% .⁴ A descriptive study was conducted to assess the mobile phone usage survey among students and staff of universities using data mining technique, by various universities and colleges in Kanchipuram. The data has collected from huge data set, the sample of ( N-158) including students and staffs chosen randomly. The overall survey shows 97% of the respondents own mobile phones, in that Nokia (66%) is the first mobile phone brand. Mostly used by the students and staffs, where in the network services provider Airtel (50%) is mostly used and the with the age between 18-25 years.⁵ A survey conducted among randomly selected university students in Poland to assess the subjective symptoms related to mobile phone use. About 70% complaints of headache and 20% of dizziness. Impaired concentration occurred in 56% respondents, and 11% reported facial dermatitis. The most prevalent symptoms related to mobile phone use is thermal sensation within the auricle, and behind and around the ear. The study concluded that a large number of young people complained of headache and impaired concentration.⁶A survey was conducted on “Mobile phone Accident- an experience of India”, the study shows that every year nearly 1.4 million people have been killed because of overbearing use of wireless devices especially the cell phones while driving increases risk of accident . The results of the survey shows that the majority of drivers 475(82%) agreed use of mobile phones while driving. 527 (91.1%) identified that using a mobile phone while driving increase the risk of an accident. 181(31%) of divers admitted that they met with an accident while using mobile phones. 150 (26%) respondent opted for a total ban of mobile phones while driving.⁷ Mobile use also has advantages and disadvantages, and as a disadvantage it may cause major health issues such as neurological impairment, accidents and other physical hazards. It also have harmful effect on academic performance of adolescents. Based on the various study findings and magnitude of the impact of cell phones and investigators observation found that the prevalence of mobile phones addiction is more, keeping in mind the researcher selected this topic for investigation.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

“A study to assess the knowledge on psychological, social and academicals impact of mobile phones among adolescents in selected nursing college at Udupi district of Karnataka state”

OBJECTIVES:

· To assess the level of knowledge on psychological,social and academicals impact of mobile phones among adolescents of selected nursing college at Udupi.

· To find the association between the knowledge of adolescents with their selected demographic variables.

Hypotheses:

All hypothesis are tested at 0.05 level of significance

H₁:

There will be a significant association between the knowledge score with selected demographic variables of the samples.

Assumptions:

The study assumed that:

· Adolescents have some knowledge about psychological, social and academicals impact of mobile phones.

· Adolescents have interest to know about the psychological, social and academicals impact of mobile phones.

METHODOLOGY:

Research Design:

Descriptive research Design

Dependent Variable:

It is usually the variable that the investigator is interested in understanding or predicting. In this study the variable knowledge on psychological, social, academicals impact of mobile phones among adolescents of selected nursing college.

Demographic Variables:

Variables are often characteristics of research subjects. In this study extraneous variables are Age of students, family income source of information in social networking and the area of living.

Inclusion Criteria

Ø The students who are willing to participate.

Ø The students who are present at the time of data collection.

Exclusion Criteria

Ø Student who are not interested to participate in the study.

Ø Student who are absent during data collection.

Data Collection Instruments:

Tools for the present study are as follows:

Ø Demographic profoma is used to collect the baseline information from selected students

Ø Structured knowledge questionnaire on impact of mobile phones.

Part I: Demographic Proforma:

It contained 8 items for obtaining information regarding age, gender, education, area of living, monthly income of family, religion, type of family, and source of information.

Part II: Knowledge questionnaire on impact of mobile phones:

A knowledge questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge on psychological, social and academicals impact of mobile phones. This part of the tool consisted of 10 items (questionnaire) in 3 areas of impact of mobile phones on adolescents. The areas were:

Ø Psychological impact

Ø Social impact

Ø Academicals impact

Validity

The content validation obtained from the experts in the field of psychology and other health care profession. There was 100% agreement for all the items.

Reliability:

Reliability of the tool is established by giving tool to 10 subjects. Reliability is established by split-half method.The reliability is 0.89, thus the tool is found to be highly reliable.

Pilot Study:

Pilot study is conducted in Udupi Dhanvanthari collge of nursing Udupi from 12^th April 2014. The study was found to be feasible; hence no modifications were done in the study methodology.

Method of Data Collection:

The main study was conducted on 24^th April 2014 after getting permission from the head of the respective institution. The investigator approaches student by self introduction and their consent was obtained for participating in the study. The data was collected with the help of questionnaire.

RESULTS:

1. Description of sample characteristics in frequency and percentages.

Ø Age:

That most of the subjects 44 (88%) adolescents were in the age group of 18-19 years, (12%) were in the age of 20-21 years, no adolescents were in the age limit of 16-17 years and 21 years and above.

Ø Gender:

Majority of the subjects (90%) were females and 10% were males.

Ø Education qualification:

Highest percentages of the subjects (60%) were Basic Bsc Nursing students, and (40%) were GNM students.

Ø Area of living:

Most of the subjects (64%) were from rural area, whereas 20% are from urban area and 16% are from semi urban area.

Ø Monthly family income:

Majority of the adolescents (58%) having monthly family income 10,000-15,000, were as (40%) of adolescents had monthly income of above 15,000 and 2% of adolescents have monthly income less than 5000.

Ø Religion:

Majority of the students are Christians (80%) , 16% are Hindu and 4% are Muslims were us no other religions among selected adolescents.

Ø Type of family:

Majority of the adolescents belongs to nuclear family (68%) and 32% adolescents belongs to joint family

Ø Source of information :

majority of the adolescents got information from TV/ internet 62%, 26% got information from news paper, 10% got information from friends/relatives and 2% adolescents got information from school books / magazines.

2. Knowledge scores of the adolescents on psychological, social and academicals impact of mobile phones.

Table 1: Knowledge scores of the adolescents on psychological, social and academicals impact of mobile phones.

Category

Frequency (f)

Percentage (%)

Poor

Average

Good

0.6

0.4

60%

40%

The above table represents most samples have poor knowledge (60%). And 40% is having average knowledge on impact of mobile phones.

It shows that mean percentage of knowledge on impact of mobile phone score was 41% with total mean and standard deviation of 4.1 and 2.44 respectively. Area wise distribution of Mean, SD, and mean percentage of the knowledge scores shows that 59.5% of the adolescents have more knowledge with mean score of (2.38+0.935) about social impact f mobile phones and 31% mean score (1.24+0.970) have knowledge on psychological impact and only 24% adolescents with the mean scores of (0.48+0.538) have academic impact of mobile phones. From the findings it is identified that adolescents lack knowledge about impact of mobile phones.

3. Association between knowledge regarding impact of mobile phones with selected demographic variables.

4. Association between knowledge score and demographic variables of adolescents revealed that there was a significant association between knowledge scores of the adolescents compared to their education, sex, area of living, monthly income, religion, type of family, source of information. But age has no significant association X² (5.334), D (f) 6, ‘P’ value (12.592) with the level f knowledge.

DISCUSSION:

The present study was conducted to assess the knowledge on impact of mobile phone on adolescents in selected nursing college at Udupi. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, descriptive design was adopted. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample. The data was collected from 50 students. The study variables were age, education, sex, area of living, monthly family income, religion, type of family, and source of information. The findings obtained from the study are as follows:

ANALYSIS OF THE FINDINGS:

The first objective of the study was to assess the level of knowledge on psychological, social and educational impact of mobile phones among adolescents. The assessment of the level of knowledge of adolescents showed that majority of the respondents, represents most samples have poor knowledge (60%). And 40% is having average knowledge on impact of mobile phones. The Area wise analysis of knowledge scores on impact of mobile phones . Area wise distribution of Mean, SD, and mean percentage of the knowledge scores shows that 59.5% of the adolescents have more knowledge with mean score of (2.38+0.935) about social impact f mobile phones and 31% mean score (1.24+0.970) have knowledge on psychological impact and only 24% adolescents with the mean scores of (0.48+0.538) have academic impact of mobile phones. From the findings it is identified that adolescents lack knowledge about impact of mobile phones. The findings of the present study are consistent with the findings of a study conducted in Saudi Arabia related to “The impact of medical education on Saudi medical student’s awareness of cell phone use and its health”. Closed ended questionnaires were distributed to 400 students to determine their knowledge and practices regarding the use of cell phones and their possible health risks. The results showed that most of the students were aware of potential risk of mobile phones and they advised that excessive use of cell phone should be avoided and health awareness must be increased.⁸ The second objective was to find the association between knowledge of adolescents with their selected demographic variables. To fulfill the above objective, Chi-square test was carried out. The study findings revealed that there was a significant association between knowledge scores of the adolescents compared to their education, sex, area of living, monthly income, religion, type of family, source of information. But age has no significant association with the level of knowledge.

CONCLUSION:

The study findings revealed that the majority students have poor to average knowledge on psychological, social and academicals impact of mobile phones.

REFERENCE:

1. Adolescence, https://en.wikipdia.og/wiki/ Adolescence

2. Ghai O.P, Gupta P, Paul.Ghai essential pediatrics. 6^th ed. New Delhi: CBS publishers and distributors: 2004. P.69.

3. Keith, Robert D, “Cell phone timeline history of the cell phones”; jou.utl.edu: 2004.

4. Communication in India [internet] 2012. Available from: http://www Wikipedia.org

5. Babu Senthalingam, K Revathi and J Devi. mobile phone usage survey among students and staff of universities using data mining technique. International journal of scientific and engineering research 2011 october;2(10)

6. Szyjkowska A. Subjective symptoms related to mobile phone use-a pilot study;. Polmerkur lekraski 2005 oct;19(112):529-32

7. H.Abdul Shabeer, Wahida Banu. Mobile phone accidents experience of India: Transport and telecommunication 2012;13(3):193-208

8. Saad Al- Muhayawi, Bassam Eldeek, Impact of medical education on Saudi Medical student awareness of cell phone use and its health hazards. Life science J 2012;(9)2:1143-1148.

Received on 31.08.2016 Modified on 25.09.2016

Int. J. Nur. Edu. and Research. 2017; 5(1): 72-76.

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2660.2017.00016.3

Sl. No.	Area	Maximum Possible Score	Mean	Standard deviation	Mean percentage
1.	Psychological impact	4	1.24	0.935	31.00%
2.	Social impact	4	2.38	0.970	59.5%
3.	Academic impact	2	0.48	0.538	24.00%
	Total	10	4.1	2.44	41%