Parents’ Distress towards Children’s Behavior and Effects of Online Games Addiction during Covid 19 Pandemic in the Southernmost Provinces of Thailand

Abstract

The research study entitled " Parents’ Distress towards Children’s Behavior and Effects of Online Games Addiction during Covid 19 Pandemic in the Southernmost Provinces of Thailand" aimed to investigate the perception and meaning of children's behavior towards the behavior and impact of online gaming addiction and to explore the parents’ lives, thoughts, and suffering regarding the behavior and impact of their children's online gaming addiction.

The results of the study found that :

1. The findings showed that in terms of perception and meaning of children's behavior towards the behavior and impact of online gaming addiction, families were aware of the behavior of online gaming addiction during the Covid-19 pandemic. Most of them gave the reason that their children's behavior in online gaming addiction had increased compared to when they were learning on-site in a normal situation. The specific behavior that was found and indicated the change in online gaming addiction behavior included the use of foullanguage, bawling at parents or caregivers, and speaking to family members using impolite language (Gu- Mung) in some cases. They also didn’t concentrate on their studies and didn’t listening to adults. When they were forbidden from playing the online games, they would show strong emotional reactions and dissatisfaction. In some cases, they started playing for 1 hour, then increased to 2 hours, and eventually almost all day. Factors contributing to online gaming addiction were having too much free time, spending too much time on the phone, and having too few shared activities among the family members. Parents' lack of discipline in their children's phone use could also contribute to the children's addiction to online gaming.

2. The life situations, thoughts and suffering of the parents or guardians whose children had the behavior of online gaming addiction during the Covid-19 pandemic reflected fear and worry. The worry was that the children were likely to sleep late and disobedient. They also feared that the children would be abnormally depressed, not be attentive in their studies, and had bad behavior such as expressing aggression, impoliteness, and violence. In some cases, the guardians (mothers) secretly cried often owing to some of their children’s behavior, particularly their words, including the issue of their health. This was because they almost did not sleep. The big worry for them was that in the end their children would not complete school since they were heavily addicted to the games. The solutions the family members used to help the guardians to relax and relieve their stress were to have conversations and have the children do activities together such as doing the chores, planting, cooking together, doing activities in the garden in the morning and evening, playing games with them, making an agreement together, spending more time with them, going to relax, not playing the phone in front of them, eating together, and assigning them more household chores to do with their mothers.