Computers, Phones and the Internet: Domesticating Information Technology

Ch. 11. Children's Home Internet Use: Antecedents and Psychological, Social and Academic Consequences. Linda A. Jackson, Alexander von Eye, Frank A. Biocca, Gretchen Barbatsis, Yong Zhao, and Hiram E. Fitzgerald

ABSTRACT:

The HomeNetToo project (2000 to 2003) is a longitudinal field study of the antecedents and consequences of home Internet use in low-income families (NSF-ITR #085348; www.HomeNetToo.org). Three objectives guided the design of the project. The first was to identify psychological and social factors that may contribute to the digital divide in Internet use. The second was to examine the psychological and social effects of using the Internet at home. The third objective was to determine whether home Internet use influenced academic performance. The focus was on African Americans because evidence suggests a persistent racial divide in Internet use. Using a longitudinal design, we obtained repeated measures of key psychological and social constructs, as well as multiple measures of Internet use that were automatically recorded (daily) for 16 months. Thus, the design permitted an evaluation of cause-effect relationships and fine-grained analyses of Internet use based on measures less susceptible to social desirability and recall biases than self-reported measures of Internet use.

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