Digital Media and Child and Adolescent Mental Health

A Practical Guide to Understanding the Evidence

Michelle O′Reilly, Nisha Dogra, Diane Levine, Veronica Donoso

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781529760842
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Can moderated screen time actually have a positive impact on young people's mental health?

With over 30 expert contributors spanning a range of disciplines including psychology, education and communications, as well as young people?s own perspectives, this book dispels some of the myths that surround young people's use of digital media and covers important topics ranging from safeguarding, to digital citizenship and the fear of missing out. Using reflective activities, practical tips and evidence-based research, this book will help you find out informed ways social and digital media can be used beneficially, providing vital understanding to anyone studying child and adolescent mental health.

Part I Digital Media and Child Mental Health Defining Terms and Identifying Relevant Issues

1 Children, Childhood and Child Development

Learning points

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

• Explain the constructions of children and childhood and paradigm shifts
• Appreciate what rights children have
• Understand child development

Introduction

The relationship between mental health and digital media is a controversial one, with tensions, disagreements, contradictory evidence and different viewpoints. To address the specific issues of the relationship between mental health and digital media, it is first important to contextualise some relevant issues of children and childhood. Our first three chapters introduce important areas that are relevant to the relationship, without making many connections across them at this point. This chapter focuses on the definitions of children and childhood to illustrate changes in thinking over time, and outlines some of the basics of child development. We briefly outline how the ways in which children are viewed have changed and how this influences concepts such as children’s rights and child-centred practice. Most of this chapter is dedicated to the basic developmental theories proposed. We caution here though, that in presenting those theories, different categories and groupings of children are used which are ostensibly inconsistent. However, when we report those theories and ideas, we are reporting the work of other scholars, and exactly because these differences in categorising reflect the tensions and differences in thinking, we do not try to modify them. Therefore, in our boxes and descriptions different age groupings are used deliberately, and this illustrates some of the challenges of defining CYP into categories.

Constructions of children and childhood

There are many views of children and childhood, and over time different ways of thinking about these topics have emerged. There are also variations in how the terms are understood between differing cultures. Even today, differences of opinion of what constitutes children and childhood remain. The history of the child is complex, and we cannot cover the entire spectrum of ideas nor the centuries of history and global cultures. We will, however, draw your attention to some key relevant points and encourage you to reflect on your own ideas about children and childhood as these might influence the way you practise, and how they might shape your ideas about digital media and its relationship with mental health which we focus on later. We invite you to consider the following question:

What is the child?

This may seem a little simplistic and initially you may feel that the answer is obvious. Yet we would encourage you to think a little more deeply and really consider what this concept means to you. Try the reflective activity in Box 1.1.

Box 1.1: Reflecting on the notion of the child

What is the child to you?

• Note three things that characterise a child and try to explain why.
• Think about the kind of words that you associate with children. Make a list of those terms and reflect on why they are important.

We are sure that different readers will have come up with a wide range of words to describe the child, and the ease with which you will have been able to respond will be as varied. A key point we want to highlight here is that children are not mini adults, they are unique, developing, creative young populations, with different levels of maturity, with rights to be involved in aspects of their lives, and a lot to say about their lives. We encourage you to hold your three words in mind as you read through the rest of the chapter.

Children and childhood

The notion of childhood being a distinct part of the lifespan was first raised by the French historian Ariès whose work challenged the idea of a universal childhood for all societies (Kellet, 2014). Ariès (1962) distinguished the child from the adult but since then there have been significant efforts to conceptualise the different phases within childhood itself, and these have become more varied over time. The distinct period known as ‘childhood’ has expanded with various stages or phases identified and some of these are illustrated in Figure 1.1, which represents a White male developing through different iterations of childhood.

Figure 1.1 Child development

Consider these groupings (noting that there is some overlap and different theories, and not all countries have this whole spectrum, or the ages might differ):

• Neonate (new-born baby)
• Infant (baby – some theories say child under one year, others say under two years)
• Toddler (young child, two–three years)
• Pre-school child (young child, pre-school age (UK) four years; however, note that different countries have children start school at different ages, not all have this category, e.g. Belgian children start school at two-and-a-half years, and other countries start older)
• Young child (school-age, five–ten years)
• Pre-teen (before adolescence, typically 10–11 years, although some say 10–13 years)
• Tween (early puberty and just before adolescence, 11–12 years)
• Adolescent (tends to be 13–16 years)
• Older adolescent (typically 17–18 years, although others consider 17–24 years)
• Young adult (little agreement on this and can include as young as 19 and as old as 30)
• Adult (the legal age of majority in many, not all, countries is 18 years, but as you can see from the above descriptions, the age at which a person is considered a fully-fledged adult varies depending on the theory and context, although the UNCRC states that childhood ends at 18 years).

Consequently, CYP, particularly in minority world economies, are constructed (at least academically) as passing through many more phases of childhood than they did historically (see Corsaro, 2011 for discussion). Each conceptual category of childhood is associated with different developmental abilities and societal expectations, and there is disagreement as to what age a child should be to fit into the category.

As noted, the ways we conceptualise children have expanded over the last century. These categories are often grouped together under chronological age and so we offer a brief description. Each of these categories will help you understand the child development section, which we turn to shortly. Note that we stop our description at the point the child turns 18 years, which is the legal age identified by the UNCRC, but recognise that many theories and scholars extend childhood beyond this age. We note that there is no simple or agreed way of grouping childhood categories, and therefore encourage you to be reflective.

Birth–four years

This category of childhood generally encompasses four main categories: neonate; infant; toddler; and pre-school children (see the challenge of this category in our earlier list). Children in this age group develop rapidly as they move from new-born baby through to young child. School starting age varies from country to country, but in many countries typically happens at approximately four or five years.

Five–seven years

By the time the child has reached five years they will have normatively acquired language skills, and can walk, climb and run, and are developing their social and cognitive skills. The child during this age-range often starts formal education and begins to build their academic abilities. At this age they are now able to think more abstractly and rapidly progress their intellectual and cognitive development.

Eight–ten years

The child is learning new skills and working through academic demands in settings where this is facilitated by socio-economic and geographic structures. They are learning to relate to peers, learning new social rules and continue developing physically.

11–12 years

This age category is relatively new and has been conceptualised as the ‘tween’ years. We include it here as some researchers separate this age group and the evidence sometimes refers to tweens. Tweens transition from being considered developmentally a child to developmentally an adolescent. While tweens used to be considered pre-teens, the pre-teen category was added to with tweens. Some children of this age will start to go through puberty. It is typically during this age stage (often 11 years) that the child moves out of primary (elementary) school and goes into secondary (high) school.

13–15 years

This age category is now considered adolescence (although some use the term ‘early adolescence’). The category of adolescence was first introduced by G. Stanley Hall (1904) at the start of the 20th century, and he marked this as an age whereby the individual moved toward adulthood but without the full responsibilities of adulthood. This is typically when the young person goes through puberty (although that can happen earlier).

16–18 years

While still constituting adolescence, this category is generally demarcated as older adolescent, noting they are developmentally different from their younger adolescent counterparts. They are often afforded rights that younger adolescents are not; for example, in some countries they can drive, have consensual sex, get married, vote, legally purchase cigarettes or alcohol, and can consent to participate in health care without parents (this varies depending on the activity and on the country). Also, in many countries they can leave school, go to college, or stay on for more education, can go into employment and so on.

There are various ways in which scholars, governments, practitioners and others break down different age categories of CYP, and we have already presented two slightly different lists so far in this chapter. However, this more detailed conceptualisation tends to reflect the school years system in many countries and is one of the common ways in which they are conceptualised. We invite you to consider the following question:

In what ways might these categories be useful in my practice?

We would encourage you to think about the ways in which these categories resonate for you in your practice and why they might matter in terms of the work you do. Try the reflective activity in Box 1.2.

Box 1.2: Reflecting on your practice

What do these different categories mea...