Digital use and socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent well-being: Longitudinal evidence on socioemotional and educational outcomes.

Abstract

Despite a growing body of research on associations between adolescent digital use and well-being, few studies have investigated these associations a) longitudinally and b) across socioeconomic status. The present study uses high-quality longitudinal data to examine how digital engagement shapes socioemotional and educational outcomes from early to late adolescence across socioeconomic status (SES). Participants are 7685 individuals (49.0% female) from the 1998 birth cohort of the longitudinal Growing Up In Ireland (GUI) survey. The survey was administered to Irish parents and children between 2007 and 2016 (at ages 9, 13, and 17/18). Fixed-effects regression modeling was used to establish associations between digital engagement and socioemotional and educational outcomes. Further Fixed-Effects models were analyzed separately by SES, to assess how associations between digital use and adolescent outcomes differ by socioeconomic groups. Results show that digital screen time increases markedly from early to late adolescence, but to a higher extent among low-SES versus high-SES groups. Heavy levels of digital screen time (i.e., 3+ hours daily) are associated with declines in well-being, particularly for external and prosocial functioning, while engagement in learning-oriented digital activities and gaming is associated with better adolescent outcomes. Yet, low-SES adolescents are globally more harmed than high-SES adolescents by their digital engagement, and high-SES adolescents benefit more from moderate levels of digital use and from engaging in learning-oriented digital activities. This study suggests that digital engagement is associated with socioeconomic inequalities in adolescents' socioemotional well-being and, to a lesser extent, educational outcomes.