Developing freedom: behavioural and social freedoms for children via mobile phones and internet devices
Creators: name: Moyse, Karen
Publisher: name: University of Lincoln
Year: 2023
Subjects: C800 - Psychology

description: Middle years children (7 - 12 years) engaging with mobile phones has become avery normal part of their behaviour in recent years. It is an important issue forpsychologists to explore in relation to learning about children’s developmentand behaviour currently. The internet is part of the mobile phone, so one cannotbe explored without looking at the other. Much of the evidence that exists hasexplored children’s use of the internet, but there is less evidence available aboutchildren using mobile phones. Only recently has evidence started to emerge.Questions were devised for this research project asking children (7 – 12 years)about the meaning of mobile phones / internet devices, as well as investigatingchildren’s use of these devices on the parenting role. A qualitative researchapproach was taken in order to investigate children's views and parents' views,so that in-depth knowledge could be gained. Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) theory onsocial development was incorporated as the underpinning theory for thisresearch, to assist in understanding children’s social development in differentsocial settings. Critical realism (Maxwell, 2012) was selected as theepistemological approach as it allowed participants' realities to be consideredclosely alongside established knowledge. As children's use of the mobile phoneis a new behaviour for them, established knowledge and views from the field ofyoung people’s use of mobile phones was included but separately; allowingchildren's realities to be considered and compared within a wider social context.A triangulated research design was thus adopted; comparing the views of thesedifferent groups of participants (children, parents and young people). Focusgroup interviews were undertaken with all participants, along with individualinterviews for children. Thematic analysis (Braun &amp; Clarke, 2006, 2013) wasapplied to analyze all participants' views. Three main themes emerged:1. Appropriate communications, where children's views about communicatingappropriately on their devices were revealed; 2. Freedom, highlighting freedomas an emerging concept for children, where mobile phones particularly playedan important role in creating opportunities for children to develop freedom both behaviourally and socially; 3. Time, the final theme shows how parents werethinking about children's use of these devices across time, as a way ofunderstanding their social development. It was revealed that the mobile phonewas used as a resource within the parenting role, helping parents to managechildren’s behaviour. These themes together form a framework for exploringchildren’s use of mobile / internet devices. The research also explored some ofthe social processes underlying interactions between children and parentsaround children’s devices. It included the unique nature of this cohort ofchildren as early users of mobile phones, as well as parents’ concerns about theirchildren’s use of them. In conclusion this research project, by exploring children'srealities alongside those of young people and parents, has helped to developan understanding about children’s behaviour in a contemporary contextthrough their use of mobile / internet devices, for one group of children. It hasalso demonstrated how freedom can emerge for children within different socialsettings (Bronfenbrenner’s settings, 1979). Further research will need to beundertaken with middle years children to see if similar findings are revealed.