Emerging digital inequality in early life: Parenting and differential usage of digital devices among urban preschoolers in China

IF 2.7 1区社会学 Q1 FAMILY STUDIES

Journal of Marriage and Family Pub Date : 2024-05-29 DOI:10.1111/jomf.12997

Airan Liu, Wangyang Li, Minyi Li

{"title":"Emerging digital inequality in early life: Parenting and differential usage of digital devices among urban preschoolers in China","authors":"Airan Liu, Wangyang Li, Minyi Li","doi":"10.1111/jomf.12997","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div>\n \n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Objective</h3>\n \n <p>This study aims to investigate the following questions: (1) how Chinese preschoolers’ usage of digital devices differ by their family socioeconomic status (SES), and (2) how socioeconomic differences in children's usage of digital devices can be accounted for by parents’ digital parenting attitudes and behaviors.</p>\n </section>\n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Background</h3>\n \n <p>Scholars in social stratification and inequality have warned about “Digital Inequality” and argued that the fact that people from different socioeconomic backgrounds differ in their access to digital equipment and their knowledge of how to use digital devices effectively would eventually contribute to social inequality. Unfortunately, most of the current studies on digital inequality focus on the population of adults or adolescents; whether and how digital inequality emerges in early life remains heavily understudied.</p>\n </section>\n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Methods</h3>\n \n <p>We use data from Early Childhood Study-The Great Bay Area (ECS-GB), a regional representative survey conducted in 2018 and designed to assess preschool children's social-emotional and cognitive development in Guangdong, a coastal province in South China. Our analytical sample consists of 11,445 preschool children aged from 3 to 6 with urban hukou.</p>\n </section>\n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Results</h3>\n \n <p>Our results show that compared with children from lower-SES families, preschoolers from higher-SES families spend less time on digital devices daily, are less likely to use digital devices for prolonged time, and spend significantly less time on non-education purposed and leisure activities. These socioeconomic differences in children's digital usage in terms of time and types of activities are attributable to the fact that parents of higher SES families impose more restrictions, provide more guidance to their children's digital activities, and are more conscious about their children's digital usage in daily life.</p>\n </section>\n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Conclusion</h3>\n \n <p>In contemporary China, digital inequality emerges in early life and such inequality is closely related to family's digital parenting practices.</p>\n </section>\n </div>","PeriodicalId":48440,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Marriage and Family","volume":"87 1","pages":"30-52"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Marriage and Family","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jomf.12997","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"FAMILY STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective

This study aims to investigate the following questions: (1) how Chinese preschoolers’ usage of digital devices differ by their family socioeconomic status (SES), and (2) how socioeconomic differences in children's usage of digital devices can be accounted for by parents’ digital parenting attitudes and behaviors.

Background

Scholars in social stratification and inequality have warned about “Digital Inequality” and argued that the fact that people from different socioeconomic backgrounds differ in their access to digital equipment and their knowledge of how to use digital devices effectively would eventually contribute to social inequality. Unfortunately, most of the current studies on digital inequality focus on the population of adults or adolescents; whether and how digital inequality emerges in early life remains heavily understudied.

Methods

We use data from Early Childhood Study-The Great Bay Area (ECS-GB), a regional representative survey conducted in 2018 and designed to assess preschool children's social-emotional and cognitive development in Guangdong, a coastal province in South China. Our analytical sample consists of 11,445 preschool children aged from 3 to 6 with urban hukou.

Results

Our results show that compared with children from lower-SES families, preschoolers from higher-SES families spend less time on digital devices daily, are less likely to use digital devices for prolonged time, and spend significantly less time on non-education purposed and leisure activities. These socioeconomic differences in children's digital usage in terms of time and types of activities are attributable to the fact that parents of higher SES families impose more restrictions, provide more guidance to their children's digital activities, and are more conscious about their children's digital usage in daily life.

Conclusion

In contemporary China, digital inequality emerges in early life and such inequality is closely related to family's digital parenting practices.

查看原文本刊更多论文

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Journal of Marriage and Family Multiple-

CiteScore

12.20

自引率

6.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： For more than 70 years, Journal of Marriage and Family (JMF) has been a leading research journal in the family field. JMF features original research and theory, research interpretation and reviews, and critical discussion concerning all aspects of marriage, other forms of close relationships, and families.In 2009, an institutional subscription to Journal of Marriage and Family includes a subscription to Family Relations and Journal of Family Theory & Review.