Middle years children (7 - 12 years) engaging with mobile phones has become audvery normal part of their behaviour in recent years. It is an important issue forudpsychologists to explore in relation to learning about children’s developmentudand behaviour currently. The internet is part of the mobile phone, so one cannotudbe explored without looking at the other. Much of the evidence that exists hasudexplored children’s use of the internet, but there is less evidence available aboutudchildren using mobile phones. Only recently has evidence started to emerge.udQuestions were devised for this research project asking children (7 – 12 years)udabout the meaning of mobile phones / internet devices, as well as investigatingudchildren’s use of these devices on the parenting role. A qualitative researchudapproach was taken in order to investigate children's views and parents' views,udso that in-depth knowledge could be gained. Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) theory onudsocial development was incorporated as the underpinning theory for thisudresearch, to assist in understanding children’s social development in differentudsocial settings. Critical realism (Maxwell, 2012) was selected as theudepistemological approach as it allowed participants' realities to be consideredudclosely alongside established knowledge. As children's use of the mobile phoneudis a new behaviour for them, established knowledge and views from the field ofudyoung people’s use of mobile phones was included but separately; allowingudchildren's realities to be considered and compared within a wider social context.udA triangulated research design was thus adopted; comparing the views of theseuddifferent groups of participants (children, parents and young people). Focusudgroup interviews were undertaken with all participants, along with individualudinterviews for children. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2013) wasudapplied to analyze all participants' views. Three main themes emerged:ud1. Appropriate communications, where children's views about communicatingudappropriately on their devices were revealed; 2. Freedom, highlighting freedomudas an emerging concept for children, where mobile phones particularly playedudan important role in creating opportunities for children to develop freedom both udbehaviourally and socially; 3. Time, the final theme shows how parents wereudthinking about children's use of these devices across time, as a way ofudunderstanding their social development. It was revealed that the mobile phoneudwas used as a resource within the parenting role, helping parents to manageudchildren’s behaviour. These themes together form a framework for exploringudchildren’s use of mobile / internet devices. The research also explored some ofudthe social processes underlying interactions between children and parentsudaround children’s devices. It included the unique nature of this cohort ofudchildren as early users of mobile phones, as well as parents’ concerns about theirudchildren’s use of them. In conclusion this research project, by exploring children'sudrealities alongside those of young people and parents, has helped to developudan understanding about children’s behaviour in a contemporary contextudthrough their use of mobile / internet devices, for one group of children. It hasudalso demonstrated how freedom can emerge for children within different socialudsettings (Bronfenbrenner’s settings, 1979). Further research will need to beudundertaken with middle years children to see if similar findings are revealed.
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