ABSTRACT
Introduction: The study examines the role of chess in the development of children from the perspectives of parents. The research focused on analyzing the parents' perceptions about chess's role in their children's development, on finding out how the perception of parents differs depending on whether they know how to play chess or not, and on outlining the profile of the parents whose children play chess.The study was conducted in Romania. Methods: In order to conduct the study, a quantitative research method was used, while having as a research instrument a non-standardized questionnaire. The questionnaire was applied to parents of chess-playing children who are members of chess clubs from Romania. The sample of the study comprises 774 respondents. Results: The results of our research showed that parents are of the opinion that chess helps children develop their cognitive abilities, their character and their competitive spirit. Most of the parents focused on highlighting the positive effects of chess on the development of their children. Parents also considered that chess helped their children develop positive emotions and helped them overcome negative emotions. The results revealed differences between the opinions of parents depending on whether they know how to play chess or not. Thus, parents who do know how to play chess were more likely to focus on the positive effects of the game on the development of their children, and those who know how to play chess were also more satisfied with their children's accumulated knowledge following chess lessons. Discussion: Findings extend our understanding of how parents perceive the way chess influences the development of their children, it offered us a perspective on the perceived benefits of chess, benefits which should be further analyzed in order to identify under what circumstances chess could be introduced in the school curriculum.
ABSTRACT
The elderly represent one of the categories that was most affected by the pandemic period. The purpose of this research was to analyze the ways in which mass media and very often contradictory information flows influenced the lives and personal communications of the Romanian elderly population during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to conduct the research, we used a mixed-methods approach. For the quantitative research, we gave a questionnaire to the elderly population of Romania, and for the qualitative research, we conducted interviews. Our quantitative sample included 881 retired persons with an age between 55 and 94 years old; the mean age was 71.48 years old with 6.6 years standard deviation. The elderly described the pandemic period using negative words: fear, loneliness, anxiety, disaster; the channel they mostly watched and trusted was the TV; they were aware of the measures they had to take to protect themselves; they missed most of the meetings with the family and the main problems they had were represented by loneliness, the inability to be with their families or the lack of access to medical services. The elderly's mass media consumption during the pandemic was mostly represented by TV consumption; the information spread by mass media was sometimes contradictory; it influenced their behavior and may have generated feelings of anxiety among them.
