Leveraging Existing and Emerging Large-Scale Social Data to Build Robust Evidence-Based Policy for Children in the Digital Age, 2005-2023

Przybylski, Andrew and Vuorre, Matti (2024). Leveraging Existing and Emerging Large-Scale Social Data to Build Robust Evidence-Based Policy for Children in the Digital Age, 2005-2023. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-857222

This project aims-for the first time-to use existing ESRC datasets to generate the science required to ground policy in this area. We aim to provide policy-makers, parents, teachers, and GPs with the evidence required to understand the role digital technologies play in the lives of British children, and to highlight potential risk and resilience factors that could be the focus of future interventions. We will use ESRC data assets, advanced statistical approaches, and robust open science methodologies to answer three pressing research questions:

1. What risk and resilience factors predispose adolescents to experiencing an effect of digital technology use on their psychological well-being?
2. What are the directional links between digital technology use and psychological well-being, and do the risk factors identified play a mediating role in this?
3. What are the causal pathways linking risk factors, digital technology use and psychological well-being that can inform future intervention?

Answers to these questions are currently elusive, due to the poor data quality and methodological shortcomings that restrain research on technology effects. We will leverage our extensive experience working with large-scale social datasets to examine the general effects of digital technologies and more technology-specific effects (e.g. social media and gaming). We will use machine learning, network modelling, and advanced longitudinal approaches to pinpoint potential risk and resilience factors (e.g. social support, economic deprivation) that alter children's reactions to digital technologies, and which could help guide future technology policy. This will create different profiles of children that we can use to investigate the uses and effects of digital technologies over the longer-term-determining which possible technology effects (e.g. social isolation) are currently unevidenced and over-hyped, and which (e.g. poor sleep) deserve a closer look.

Data description (abstract)

This project leveraged existing datasets to ground policy for children in the digital age for the first time. The project provided evidence to policy-makers, parents, teachers, and GPs on the impact of digital technologies in the lives of British children, highlighting key risk and resilience factors for future interventions. Using existing data, advanced statistical techniques, and robust open science methodologies, we addressed three main research questions: 1. What risk and resilience factors influence the effect of digital technology on adolescents' psychological well-being? 2. How does digital technology use relate to psychological well-being, and do identified risk factors mediate this relationship? 3. What are the causal pathways between risk factors, digital technology use, and psychological well-being that could inform future interventions? This helped develop profiles to explore long-term technology use and effects, distinguishing between over-hyped concerns, like social isolation, and those warranting further scrutiny, such as poor sleep. While the data cannot be shared or underlaying code is made available open access under Related Resources.

Data creators: