Young People's digital maturity relates to different forms of well-being through basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration

Abstract

Digital maturity describes the self-determined use of digital technologies to support psychological growth and social adjustment and has been associated with reduced negative mobile device use. However, the relationships between digital maturity and a goal-directed use of technology (i.e., instrumental use) and well-being remain poorly understood. We conducted two studies (Ntotal = 641, age 12–18) with parent-adolescent dyads in Austria and Germany and investigated the associations of digital maturity with instrumental device use, indicators of well-being (life satisfaction, positive affect, psychological richness), and ill-being (negative affect, psychological distress), as well as the mediating role of psychological need satisfaction and frustration using structural equation modeling. The results confirmed that digital maturity is linked to instrumental device use. In addition, we found that digital maturity is positively associated with well-being and negatively with ill-being, partially mediated through psychological need satisfaction and frustration. The results indicate that a self-determined use of digital technologies (i.e., digital maturity) may support well-being while shielding against threats and dangers to well-being, and that psychological need satisfaction and frustration are important mechanisms of these relationships.