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Abstract
Despite the growing body of literature on how digital technologies impact child well-being, previous research has provided little evidence on recent digital trends. This paper examines the patterns and effects of digital use on child socioemotional well-being across two cohorts of children grown up ten years apart during the ‘digital age’: the 1998 cohort (interviewed in 2007/08) and the 2008 cohort (interviewed in 2017/18). Multivariate linear regression models were conducted for these two cohorts from the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study, a multi-cohort longitudinal study with rich comparable data on a large sample of 9-year olds (N = 13,203). Results show that (i) in 2017/18 children were more active in digital devices and social media, while in 2007/2008 children spent more time watching TV and adopted less diversified forms of media engagement; (ii) spending more than 3 daily hours on TV/digital activities was associated with significant declines in child socioemotional well-being, while such effects were stronger in 2017/18 than in 2007/08; (iii) media engagement (but not other forms of digital engagement) was associated with moderate declines in socioemotional well-being, both in 2007/08 and in 2017/18; (iv) while children’s media and digital engagement differed by the child gender and socioeconomic background, none of these variables moderated the effects of digital use on children’s socioemotional well-being, neither in 2007/08 nor in 2017/18. Overall, the study reveals persistence, but also some important changes, in recent trends on children’s digital use and its impact on socioemotional well-being in Ireland.
Highlights
Today’s youth have unprecedented access to digital media and technologies, having grown up as ‘digital natives.’ Digital devices and activities, and how children engage with them, are constantly evolving
In the 1998 cohort sample 73% of children spent over an hour watching TV, while this number dropped to 48% in the 2008 cohort sample; digital screen-time over an hour rose from 13% to 28% between the 1998 and the 2008 cohorts, with the proportion of non-users dropping by 9%
These findings indicate that children are moving away from traditional TV screen-time and supplanting it with time spent on digital technologies
Summary
Today’s youth have unprecedented access to digital media and technologies, having grown up as ‘digital natives.’ Digital devices and activities, and how children engage with them, are constantly evolving. Very little is known on whether current children’s digital engagement is affecting their well-being differently compared to previous generations Our study addresses this critical question to further understand children’s lives and well-being in contemporary societies. In our context of rapid digital innovation, changing gender roles and increasing socioeconomic inequalities, it is relevant to examine whether SES and gender are playing a role in moderating the impact of digital activities on child well-being across recent cohorts. In this sense, our study contributes to debates on the heterogeneous impact of digital technologies on child well-being across socioeconomic and demographic groups
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