Abstract
Despite extensive research since the 1990s, empirical studies have reported inconsistent findings in terms of the effects of ICT use on student outcomes. This chapter reviews the research literature on students’ ICT use in school and at home and identifies the methodological issues that may lead to inconclusive and mixed findings. The chapter begins with a discussion of selection and omitted variable bias. This is followed by an examination of the measures of ICT access and use at home and in schools. We suggest that the considerable variation in the definitions and measures of ICT access, ICT use, and forms of educational technology used in research contributes to the inconsistent conclusions in empirical research and should receive more attention from scholars, educators, and policymakers. We also suggest that ICT use at a moderate level may have positive returns, but intensive ICT use could produce negative effects on student outcomes. Scholars should consider modeling the curvilinear relationship between ICT use and adolescent well-being in empirical analysis.
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Ma, J.KH., Cheng, S. (2022). Research Literature on How Digital Inclusion Affects Adolescents’ Well-Being. In: Adolescent Well-Being and ICT Use. Human Well-Being Research and Policy Making. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04412-0_2
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