Child and adolescent digital use and well-being outcomes: evidence from an Irish birth-cohort study
Citation:
Bohnert, Melissa, Child and adolescent digital use and well-being outcomes: Evidence from an Irish birth-cohort study, Trinity College Dublin, School of Social Sciences & Philosophy, Sociology, 2024Download Item:
Abstract:
The rapid digitalization of society over the past decades has fundamentally changed how people socialize, work, and play. Subsequently, children and adolescents’ use of digital technologies has increased rapidly, facilitated by the ever-evolving mobile accessibility and computing power of new digital technologies. Such marked and rapid increases in both access and use of digital technologies has caused growing concerns in parents, researchers, policymakers, and clinicians alike as to what effects such technologies may have on children’s development. The current generation of children and adolescents mark a particularly important window into potential effects of digital technologies. Young children today represent the first potential glimpse into how digitalized childhoods potentially alter or mediate the critical developmental stages, and how this then affects later outcomes. Therefore, the study of how children’s engagement in digital technologies affects their well-being in contemporary society is essential to understand the daily lives and life chances of children from these new generations. The present project aims at achieving new understandings of how digital technologies impact the social, emotional, and mental well-being outcomes of children and adolescents in Ireland. The project will examine variations in children’s digital engagement use and effects on well-being by considering the role of (1) cohorts, (2) socioeconomic status, (3) gender and mechanisms and (4) parental mediation. The first paper of this thesis investigates how children’s digital use, and associations of this digital use on well-being, differs across cohorts born ten years apart in 21st century Ireland. This paper utilizes the age nine waves of the 1998 and 2008 GUI cohorts and employs linear and quantile regression methods. Results indicate that excessive screen-time (3+ hours daily) is associated with lower socio-emotional well-being, although these associations are stronger in the younger cohort. In sum, this paper reveals some persisting patterns, but also important evolutions, in the association of children’s digital use on well-being. The second paper of the thesis centralizes the potential role of socioeconomic status in the relationship between digital use and socioemotional and educational outcomes. Utilizing all waves of the 1998 GUI Cohort that were available at the time (ages 9, 13, 17/19), this paper employs fixed-effects regression modelling. Results show that not only do adolescents from low-SES backgrounds engage in significantly more digital use on average, but also derive much larger negative effects on well-being than their high-SES counterparts. Overall, this paper indicates that there might be key socioeconomic inequalities in digital use and digital effects in contemporary Ireland, with adolescents from low-SES backgrounds substantially less equipped to compensate for the disadvantages associated with digital use. Paper 3 of this thesis project, in contrast, centralizes the role of gender as well as mechanisms in associations between digital use and depressive symptoms in Irish youth. This study used longitudinal data from the 1998 Child Cohort to assess 1) how previous and present digital use behaviors are associated with depressive symptoms in late adolescence, 2) what pathways explain these associations, and 3) how associations and pathways between digital engagement and depressive symptoms differ by gender. Findings indicate higher digital screen-time at age 20, as well as heavy digital use throughout adolescence, is associated with higher depressive symptoms. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) further indicate digital screen-time is both directly associated with depressive symptoms, but also indirectly associated via multiple pathways. Pathways were finally found to differ significantly by gender. The final paper of this thesis, Paper 4, investigates contemporary parental mediation strategies among parents of Irish 9-year-olds, and how varying parental mediation strategies might be differently associated with well-being outcomes. This paper utilizes Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to identify four dominant mediation strategies. Results indicate that low-SES and parental educational attainment is associated with `Low’ mediation strategies, and further that children whose parents engage in Low-Mediation to be particularly vulnerable to negative effects of digital use on well-being. Overall, this paper reveals 1) the dominant strategies of parental mediation in contemporary Ireland and 2) parental mediation strategies, or lack thereof, are significantly associated with child well-being outcomes.
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https://tcdlocalportal.tcd.ie/pls/EnterApex/f?p=800:71:0::::P71_USERNAME:BOHNERTMDescription:
APPROVEDAs of January 22, 2024, Chapters 2 and 3 of this thesis have been published and peer-reviewed. The remaining empirical chapters have not yet been published and peer-reviewed.
Author: Bohnert, Melissa
Advisor:
Gracia, PabloPublisher:
Trinity College Dublin. School of Social Sciences & Philosophy. Discipline of SociologyType of material:
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