Young people and mobile phones in sub-Saharan Africa

Porter, Gina and Hampshire, Kate and Abane, Albert and Munthali, Alister and Mashiri, Mac and deLannoy, Ariane and Robson, Elsbeth (2017). Young people and mobile phones in sub-Saharan Africa. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-852493

This research project, which commenced in August 2012, explored how the rapid expansion of mobile phone usage is impacting on young lives in sub-Saharan Africa. It builds directly on our previous research on children’s mobility within which baseline quantitative data and preliminary qualitative information was collected on mobile phone usage (2006-2010) across 24 research sites, as an adjunct to our wider study of children’s physical mobility and access to services. In this study our focus is specifically on mobile phones and we cover a much wider range of phone-related issues, including changes in gendered and age patterns of phone use over time; phone use in building social networks (for instance to support job search); impacts on education, livelihoods, health status, safety and surveillance, physical mobility and possible connections to migration, youth identity, and questions of exploitation and empowerment associated with mobile phones. Mixed-method, participatory youth-centred studies have been conducted in the same 24 sites as in our earlier work across Ghana, Malawi and South Africa (urban, peri-urban, rural, remote rural, in two agro-ecological zones per country). We have built on the baseline data for 9-18 year-olds gathered in 2006-2010, through repeat and extended studies, but also included additional studies with 19-25 year-olds (to capture changing usage and its impacts as our initial cohort move into their 20s).

Data description (abstract)

Quantitative and qualitative data sets for 24 sites across Ghana, Malawi and South Africa: a) SPSS dataset on young people’s use of mobile phones in Ghana, Malawi and South Africa.  4626 cases (young people aged 7-25 years): 1568 Ghana; 1544 Malawi; 1514 South Africa.  719 variables (+ 11 ‘navigation facilitators’) b) 1,620 Qualitative transcripts from interviews with people of diverse ages, 8y upwards: individual interviews [using either i.theme checklist or ii call register checklist]; focus group interviews [not all sites]: 50-80 transcripts for most sites.

Downloads

Altmetric