Clinics in Mother and Child Health

Abstract

Psycho-Social Influence of Multimedia Violence amongst Children of School Age in Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Oladeji D

The study established the influence of psycho-social influence of multimedia violence on children of school age in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. A total of 150 school age children involved in the study were randomly selected from four different schools constituted the sample for the study. Two validated instruments used for the study were author-constructed questionnaires with 0.71 and 0.76 reliability co-efficient respectively. The findings showed that 3.3% of the children were within the age 8-10 years, 3.3% were within the age 10-12 years, and 93.3% of the respondents within 13-15, 56.7% of the respondents were male while 43.3% were female. 73.3% of the students live in town with their parent while 26.7% live in staff quarters, 73.3% of the respondents spent an hour or less per day watching television. It further showed that 20.0% spent between 2 and 3 hours while 6.7% spent 7 hours and above watching television. The findings also showed that 26.7% have seen someone caring a gun, 56.7% have had about someone getting killed, 36.6% have seen people bullied, 56.7% have seen people steal, 23.3% have seen people strangling their necks in fights, 60.0% have seen people punching each other, 50.0% have seen people smoking, 50.0% have seen people taking alcohol and drugs. On the other hand 36.7% of the respondent who have seen someone caring a gun are always very upset, 56.7% of the respondent who have had about someone getting killed are very upset, 50.0% of the respondent who have seen people bullied are very upset, 36.7% of the respondent who have seen people steal are very upset. Whereas, 40.0% of the respondent who have seen people strangling their necks in fights are very upset, 36.6% of the respondent who have seen people punching each other are very upset, 40.0% of the respondent who have seen people smoking are very upset while 40.0% of the respondent have seen people taking alcohol and drugs are very upset. Based on the results of this finding, it was concluded that all the variables tested had contributed positively to the occurrence of the problem; therefore, psychologists, counsellors and educators should take cognizant of those variables that have been found to influence multimedia violence among school age children. The study recommended intervention strategy to help families, couples and the individuals for modifying attitudes and behaviour of the children on the inherent danger on multimedia violence.