Digital compensation
Smartphone use in the emotion socialisation of left-behind children in rural China
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6443356 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Qinghua Wang (0000-0002-0645-6514, Nanjing University), Xin Zheng (0000-0001-9176-8856, Nanjing University), Shuling Zhang (0000-0001-6809-9682, University of International Business and Economics, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 2434-2454 |
| Publication date | 2023-11-28 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | New Media & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/14614448231213954 |
| OpenAlex | W4389150519 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 29 |
Through field investigations in two populous Chinese provinces, this study proposes a grounded theory of digital compensation afforded by smartphone usage in the emotion socialisation of left-behind children. Our interviews found that these children suffer from emotional deficiencies or deficits caused by the absence of parents’ emotional companionship, a lack of emotional education within the family and a decline in playmates in their rural communities. Our study also revealed the dialectical tension between the possibilities and ramifications of digital compensation. In a miniature media ecology constructed by smartphones, migrant parents provide virtual companionship and peers help build social capital, while stay-at-home grandparents perform a scaffolding or gatekeeping role, providing a symbolic sense of emotional compensation. Instead of addressing the root causes of the children’s emotional distress, the compensatory affordances of smartphone use have had concerning consequences of intense feelings of deprivation and social reversal that exacerbate their loneliness and isolation
Affordance · Compensation (psychology · Developmental psychology · Feeling · Grandparent · Grounded theory · Interpersonal relationship · Loneliness · Qualitative research · Sociology · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Psychology · Social Psychology · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics
Parental migration and cyberbullying victimization among Chinese left-behind children
Development and Validation of the Polymedia Compensation Scale for Left‐Behind Children in Migrant Families
Maternal Absence and Preschoolers’ Social-Emotional Development in Father-Migrant Families
Mobile phone use, rural inequality, and children’s learning in China
Mediated family affection
Domesticating Smartphone in Distance
Not all digital natives thrive
Information and communication technology in transnational families
Loneliness of left‐behind children
Social Implications of Smartphone Use
Emotional and behavioral problems of Chinese left-behind children
Preschool Emotional Competence
Psychological adjustment among left‐behind children in rural C hina
Mobile-mediated multimodal communications, relationship quality and subjective well-being
Relative Deprivation
Parental Socialization of Emotion
Left‐Behind Children's Grandparent–Child and Parent–Child Relationships and Loneliness
Family Structure, Family Instability, and Child Psychological Well-Being in the Context of Migration
Feeling mediated
Child Development in Rural China
Emotions and Digital Well-Being
How far are the left‐behind left behind? A preliminary study in rural China
Well‐being of migrant and left‐behind children in C hina
The relationship between smartphone use for communication, social capital, and subjective well-being in Korean adolescents
Are physically embodied social agents better than disembodied social agents
Imagined Affordance
Differentiated childhoods
Migration and children's psychosocial development in China
The consequences of parental labor migration in China for children's emotional wellbeing
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |