Adolescents are the heaviest users of technology. The proliferation of the types of technology have allowed for greater access and use among adolescents. One potential impact of the use of technology is changes in levels of mental health. How technology use affects levels of mental health in adolescences and later in life has not been fully answered by current research. Additionally, use of technology and levels of mental health differ by type of technology, gender and age. This project will explore how use of technology and mental health are related as adolescents’ transition into adulthood. We will look at gender differences as well as explore whether the type of technology affects mental health differently.
The UK has many high quality datasets of children and adolescents that may be able to address these questions. We will catalogue the use of technology questions employed in these datasets. Using those questions we will group individuals based on their use of technology and levels of mental health change during adolescence. We will then examine how levels of mental health and use of technology in early adulthood are associated with the adolescent groupings. Both technology use and mental health have been associated with educational attainment and entry into the labour market. Therefore we will extend our analysis to explore the relationships between use of technology, levels of mental health and educational attainment/entry into the labour market.
The findings from this project will inform future policy decisions, research and intervention development.