Röhlke, Leo (2025). Digital Technology Engagement During Childhood and Adolescence and the Reproduction of Educational Inequalities. (Thesis). Universität Bern, Bern
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Abstract
This dissertation compiles four empirical studies that examine how children’s and adolescents’ engagement with contemporary digital technologies relates to the reproduction of socioeconomic and gender inequalities in education. Focusing on out-of-school engagement with digital technology and the role of parents, the empirical studies investigate how established mechanisms of social reproduction, like the intergenerational transmission of cultural capital, are transformed in the digital age. The first study investigates the relationship between parental socioeconomic background and children’s digital technology use in the Swiss context. Through a typological approach, the study reveals both a continuation of use patterns from the television era and the emergence of a new type of socioeconomic advantage based on the possession of digital (cultural) capital. The second study takes a comparative approach and examines cross-country differences in the association between socioeconomic background and adolescents’ use of digital technologies for educational and recreational purposes. The results indicate that more universal access to ICT (information and communication technologies) at home and greater ICT integration in schools may exacerbate rather than mitigate socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent digital engagement. In contrast to mere digitalization efforts, educational reforms appear as a promising pathway to address digital inequalities in adolescence. The third study addresses the time-displacement hypothesis, analyzing how early adolescents’ time allocation changes after they acquire their first personal mobile phone. Using longitudinal time-use data and a difference-in-differences design, the study demonstrates that mobile devices mostly compete with legacy media like television rather than displacing developmentally beneficial activities such as reading, physical activity, or sleep. The fourth study examines how Swiss adolescents’ ICT interest and self-concept influence their selection into dual vocational education and training (VET) programs. Results indicate that ICT interest and self-concept contribute to gender differences in ICT-related career pathways. By bridging the digital divide and educational inequality literatures, this dissertation advances sociological understanding of the role of digital technology engagement in the reproduction of educational inequalities. Even as disparities in ICT access diminish, inequalities in children’s and adolescents’ digital engagement remain and continue to produce unequal educational outcomes, as traditional forms of cultural capital interact with digital ones.
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Dissertation Type: | Cumulative |
| Date of Defense: | 21 August 2025 |
| Subjects: | 000 Computer science, knowledge & systems 300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 360 Social problems & social services 300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 370 Education |
| Institute / Center: | 03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences |
| Depositing User: | Hammer Igor |
| Date Deposited: | 26 Jan 2026 15:29 |
| Last Modified: | 27 Jan 2026 17:08 |
| URI: | https://boristheses.unibe.ch/id/eprint/7083 |
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