Young children (0-8) and digital technology. What changes in one year? National report, Spain

Abstract

The study is a part of a larger qualitative study carried out across 7 European countries sponsored by the EU Joint Research Centre aimed at exploring the changes in one year that children aged between 0 and 8 years experience in relation to (a) their use and representation of digital technologies, e.g. smart phones, tablets, computers, TVs, video-games, etc. and; (b) the mediating strategies of their families. A total of 38 families with at least one child aged 8-9 have participated in the current fieldwork; 37 have at least one child aged 8-9 and 1 has a child of 5 years. Most of the participant families had previously been involved in a prior fieldwork undertaken in 2015, which counted with the participation of 214 families of European countries. This study in Spain is a step further of previous fieldwork (Matsumoto et al., 2016; Galera, Matsumoto and Poveda, 2016), which focused on the ways in which children and their families engage with and perceive new (online) technologies and to what extent technology empowers (or not) families. This second study focuses on a single overall research question: what changes in one year? This research question is addressed considering the four areas that structured the previous study: Use, Perceptions/Attitudes, Individual context, and Family context. This national report of Spain is written based on data generated by interviewing 6 families of which 5 have at least one child between 8-9 years of age and 1 has one child of 5 years of age. The fieldwork was conducted in the Autonomous Community of Madrid and in Catalonia between June 2016 and March 2017. Although the literature regarding technology in the life of children 0-8 is slowly growing in the Spanish context as a key focus as such, it is still very scarce. Challenges also remain in terms of addressing diversity and internationalization of research. We hope, therefore, that the results from this study will serve as a basis for larger EU studies on related topics and for policy recommendations in Spain and beyond.