Teenagers and mobile telephone: the perspective of parents residents in the rural area

Abstract

Teenagers and mobile telephone: the perspective of parents residents in the rural area. The continued development and overwhelming popularity of the new information and communication technologies is undeniable. Specifically, the mobile phone has entered into our daily lives, becoming an essential element for a large part of the population -and especially for adolescents-, acquiring relational and communicative functions so powerful that they have entailed changes in psychosocial behavior. In addition, studies in that regard support that this is especially significant in minors living in rural areas, because the special characteristics of the environment (depopulation –primarily talking about the young population-, infrastructure deficit, scarce offer of free time activities, distance of other population centers...) Given this imminent reality, of undeniable educational implications,
this work aims to analyze whether parents, mothers and/or tutors living in rural areas appreciate changes in the psychosocial behavior of their children -in adolescent age and owning a mobile phone- due to the use of that. To carry out the research, a small rural village in the region of La Armuña (Salamanca) has been selected. The sample consisting of 37 parents, mothers and/or tutors, with children in adolescent age, 54% of which are women and 46% are men, aged between 35 and 65 years. The instrument used is an ad hoc questionnaire, prepared by the authors, consisting of a total of 41 items. The results reveal that, due to the use of the mobile phone, parents appreciate changes not only in the behavior of their adolescent children, but also in their own way of life and family routines. Likewise, it is verified that, in the studied sample, few parents establish rules or limits of using the mobile devices to their children, as well as the scarce formation of parents in the new technologies.