engleski

Is my digital device bringing me down? The association of digital technology use in children and their daily mood

There are many different reasons why children use digital technology (DT), and among all of them, there is sometimes a children’s need to distract themselves, to relieve stress, to feel better, or to share their emotions with others. There is still no clear evidence that this „digital emotional regulation" is productive and beneficial for children, or is it counterproductive for children's mood. Using the diary method, this study aimed to explore the association between DT use in children and their daily mood. For the purpose of the research, an instrument called "My Media Diary" was constructed, and it measured children's time of DT use, digital devices use, engagement in different activities on DT devices, reason for DT use, and social context during DT use. Children recorded their DT use during one week, and at the end of each day they reported their daily mood by circling one or more pictures of robots that best described how they felt during the day. These pictures were taken from a cartoon- based pictorial instrument for reporting and expressing moods Pick-A-Mood (Desmet et al., 2016). The research was conducted as part of the research project „Digital technology in the family: patterns of behaviour and effects on child There are many different reasons why children use digital technology (DT), and among all of them, there is sometimes a children’s need to distract themselves, relieve stress, feel better, or share their emotions with others. There is still no clear evidence that this „digital emotional regulation" is productive and beneficial for children or counterproductive for children's mood. This study aimed to explore the association between DT use in children and their daily mood using the diary method. For the purpose of the research, an instrument called "My Media Diary" was constructed, and it measured children's time of D use, digital devices use engagement in different activities on DT devices, the reason for DT use, and social context during DT use. Children recorded their DT use during one week, and at the end of each day, they reported their daily mood by circling one or more pictures of robots that best described how they felt during the day. These pictures were taken from a cartoon-based pictorial instrument for reporting and expressing moods Pick-A-Mood (Desmet et al., 2016). The research was conducted as part of the research project „Digital technology in the family: patterns of behaviour and effects on child development" which was conducted between February and May 2021. The data on DT use and daily mood were collected from 60 children (34 girls, 56.7%) aged from 4 to 15 years old. The findings of this study suggest that children's DT use might be related to their daily mood. This study contributes to the literature on measuring DT use in children by applying a diary approach and extends previous research by highlighting a potential association between children’s moods and digital device use. Suggestions for future research using the diary method for the collection of data on children's digital technology use are offered.

digital devices ; children ; mood ; diary

nije evidentirano