THE INFLUENCE OF ANIMATED YOUTUBE VIDEOS ON CHILDREN SUFFERED IN MALADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR AT HYDERABAD (SINDH)

Abstract

YouTube became a popular application of sharing animated cartoon videos. The present study aims to analyze how high screen time on YouTube causes maladaptive behavior problems among children and what the parental role is in controlling screen time. A quantitative research design employed and collected 100 parents of children aged between 2 to 12 at Hyderabad (Sindh), who watches animated YouTube videos. The findings reveal a statistically significant negative correlation between screen time and maladaptive behavior patterns (β = -1.492, p = 0.005), where increased screen time does not directly magnify maladaptive behaviors. It has found that animated cartoons emerged as the most influential content type on maladaptive behavior; such as aggression, inappropriate actions, conflict, distraction, and attention seeking. Moreover, parental supervision demonstrated less influence on screen time (β = -0.010, p = 0.964). The surprising finding is that despite high parental supervision, there is no significant control over children’s screen time. Additionally, age showed no significant direct relationship with maladaptive behaviors (β = -0.353, p = 0.552), although descriptive statistics showed that younger children have the highest screen time and consume cartoon-based content. It has revealed that animated YouTube videos significantly influence younger children’s maladaptive behaviors, with screen time and content type playing critical roles in shaping these behavioral outcomes, whereas parental supervision has no significant control over children’s screen time.