Abstract
Subjective well-being is a broad category of phenomena that includes people’s emotional responses, domain satisfactions, and global judgments of life satisfaction. This research investigates how schoolchildren’s subjective well-being is affected by the different types of technology use, in personal contexts, and, concurrently, whether these effects are different when the use of technology is problematic. The central hypotheses are as follows: (1) the use of the Internet affects the subjective well-being of schoolchildren negatively only when this use is problematic and (2) the effect on subjective well-being is different according to the type of Internet use. To respond to the objectives of the research, a survey was applied to 15-year-old adolescents (2,579 cases), distributed in 330 public schools, beneficiaries of a government program for the delivery of personal computers and Internet for a year. The different uses of the Internet were measured using frequency scales by type of activity (social, recreational, and educational). Problematic use scale measured the perception of negative consequences of the intensity of Internet use on a daily basis. Subjective well-being was measured by the Personal Well-Being Index-School Children (PWI-SC). Subsequently, for analytical purposes, three simple mediation models were created, whose dependent variable was PWI-SC, while its independent variables were Internet use scales differentiated by purpose (social, recreational, and educational) and problematic use as a mediating variable, as well as attributes of the subjects and their social environment, which were incorporated as control variables. The main results show that only if Internet use is expressed as problematic does it negatively affect subjective well-being. On the contrary, when the use of the Internet is not problematic, the effect is positive and even greater than the simple effect (without mediation) between these two variables. This finding is relevant, since it allows us to provide evidence that suggests that, when studying the effect that the intensity of the Internet, firstly, one must consider the mediating effect exerted by the network’s problematic use and, secondly, that not all types of use have the same impact. Therefore, it is useful to enrich the discussion on subjective well-being and social integration of schoolchildren in the digital age.
Highlights
Over the last decades, the relentless proliferation of digital technologies has profoundly transformed and impacted all human activities
When comparing the differences in the scores obtained by male students and female students in the four scales, it is found that the means are very similar in the Social use of Internet Scale (SUIS), Educational use of Internet Scale (EUIS), and Problematic use of Internet Scale (PUIS) and slightly higher in the case of male students on the Recreational use of Internet Scale (RUIS) scale
When applying tests of differences of means, using Student’s t(α = 0.05), these were not statistically significant for SUIS, t(2509) = 0.075, p = 0.940; EUIS t(2509) = 1.124, p = 0.261; and PUIS, t(2509) = −1.683, p = 0.092; but it was in the case of RUIS, t(2509) = −2.881, p = 0.004, D = −0.14, it is a minor effect
Summary
The relentless proliferation of digital technologies has profoundly transformed and impacted all human activities. We understand as digital development the degree to which these technologies penetrate society, considering the scope and depth of their deployment, and whether this is reflected in the increase in the possibilities that the population has to accessing, using, and learning about them (Minges, 2005; ITU, 2017; van Deursen et al, 2017) In this regard, experts on the field seem to agree that access to technology is not equitably distributed between countries, territories, or among the different members of society. It is evident that there is more and more access to mobile devices, computers, and Internet connectivity, as a result of the technological development, the existence of a first- and second-generation digital divide is a global ongoing problem, especially in developing countries For this reason, countries have found in the school system an effective way to reduce it through various programs of access to technology at schools or through the delivery of digital equipment to students (Cabello and Claro, 2017; Cabello et al, 2020). In 2015, this policy became universal for the case of seventh-grade students in public schools (Severin, 2016; Claro and Jara, 2020)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
