Prospective study of mobile phone acquisition and ownership and well-being among Latinx children

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Technology, Media & Child Development

Abstract

At what age should a child receive their first mobile phone? Is owning a mobile phone harmful to children? Growing evidence about potential benefits and harms of mobile phones (Orben & Przybylski, 2019; Twenge et al., 2018) have mainly examined frequency and time of use, without directly addressing these questions. Few studies have prospectively observed children as they acquire mobile phones. Further, we know little about mobile phone ownership effects among ethnic minority children, including Latinx youth who are the fastest-growing among all racial/ethnic groups under age 18 in the U.S. (Lopez et al., 2018). Findings from predominantly White samples may not generalize to ethnic minority youth (García Coll et al., 1996),

This study used an ethnic homogeneous design to examine longitudinal associations between the age of acquisition and ownership of mobile phones and well-being among Latinx children. Data came from five annual assessments in a clinical trial of weight gain reduction. Analyses included 263 children (55.5% female; baseline Mage = 9.5 years, SD = 1.5, range = 7.0 to 12.0; 53.7% with annual household income below $25,000). Age of first acquisition was estimated from parents’ reports of their children’s mobile phone ownership at each assessment. We used multilevel models to test associations between acquisition age, ownership status, and measures of children’s school grades, sleep timing and duration and daytime sleepiness, and depressive symptoms. For each outcome, we examined the main effects of ownership and acquisition age of mobile phone, whether and how these two factors moderate the outcome changes over time, and the interactions among these two factors and time. Models were adjusted for child and family demographics, randomization assignment, and child pubertal maturity (Moreno et al., 2019). This analysis had 80% power to detect r = .10 L1 direct effect, r = .19 to .29 L2 direct effect, and r = .33 cross-level interactions. All analyses steps were pre-registered on Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/hukfd?view_only=0ee3c89514d047adb09250ef768f455d).

On average, children first acquired their mobile phone at age 11.62 years (SD = 1.41; range = 7.7 to 15.25; Fig.1). Results revealed nonsignificant associations for all of the exposures and outcomes, except for the moderation effect of ownership on over-time changes of depressive symptoms (r = .092, SE = .034, p = .008). Simple slope follow-up tests revealed that depressive symptoms declined over time before youth’s mobile phone ownership onset, r = -.148, SE = .028, p < .001, but did not change after the onset, r = -.056, SE = .035, p = .118.

This study found a significant association between prospectively assessed phone ownership and less over-time improvements of depressive symptoms among low-income Latinx children. Mobile phone ownership and acquisition age were not statistically significantly associated with recent school grades, reported sleep timing and duration, or daytime sleepiness. In contrast to most prior studies, the prospective assessments allowed analyses incorporating within-person changes in both mobile phone exposure and outcomes. However, these findings are consistent with previous findings of null to small associations between technology use on predominantly White youth’s well-being.
 

Authors

• Xiaoran Sun, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Presenting Author

• K. Farish Haydel, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Donna Matheson, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Manisha Desai, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Thomas N Robinson, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author