Introduction: In spite of the appearance of modern media technologies, television still stands as the most popular screen media. Several studies have shown that television viewing can cause both beneficial and deleterious effects in physical and mental well being across all age groups. The primary objective of the study was to examine the association between psychological well being and TV serial watching among adult bystanders in a hospital setting.
Methodology: This is a cross sectional analytical study conducted in bystanders of various outpatient departments of a tertiary care centre to determine the level of psychological well being in TV serial watching and non watching adult individuals. The study location was a tertiary care centre in Ernakulam, Kerala. Bystanders who were in the age group of 18-70 years of age and without any terminal illness or psychiatric complaints were selected for the study. The bystanders were briefed about the study, consented and data were collected in a self administered questionnaire. Ryff’s scale of psychological well being was used to determine the level of psychological well being. The data were analysed using SPSS version 21.
Results: We recruited 500 participants who satisfied the selection criteria. The mean age of the study population was 41.53(14.82) years and three fourth of the participants were female, n=376(75.2%).
In the group of 500, 320(64%) watched TV serials for 1 hr and more per day and 180 people ( 36 % ) did not watch TV serials.
Among the 320 people who watched TV serials ,192 people ( 60%) watched TV serial for 1 hour per day, 104 people( 32.5 %) watched TV serial for 1- 5 hrs, 23 people ( 7.1%) watched for 6-10 hours a day and only 1 person ( 0.4%) watched for more than 10 hours a day.
Females spend more time in watching TV serials than males (p<0.001).
Urban population spend more time watching TV serials in comparison to rural population (p<0.05).
There was no significant association seen in the education level between TV serial watching and non watching groups (p0.13).
A significant association was seen in the occupation between TV serial watching and non watching groups (p<0.05).
Low psychological well being was seen in 81(25.2%) of those reported watching TV serials and in 24(13.3%) of those who reported not watching TV serials. This difference was statistically significant (p value <0.0001).
Conclusion: The study results suggest that TV serial watching had a significant negative influence on psychological well being.
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2022: 6.012
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