Professor Pablo Gracia

Summary

This ERC project develops an innovative time-use approach to understand how exactly adolescent digital use shapes social inequalities in well-being in contemporary societies. The project DIGINEQ aims at meeting three main objectives throughout its 5 years of life: (1) To understand how changes in digital engagement shape socioeconomic gaps in well-being outcomes from childhood to late adolescence; (2) To disentangle how exactly adolescents" digital use forms social inequalities in well-being in everyday life; (3) To establish if digital interventions can promote adolescent well-being and healthy digital use, while reducing social inequalities in these areas.

Funding Agency

European Commission

Programme

European Research Council, ERC Consolidator Grant

Summary

This project, coordinated by Dr Jianghong Li and Dr Matthias Pollmann-Schult, will examine the impact of the impact of NSWS on the psychological wellbeing of children and parents using European cross-country data and large-scale longitudinal data from Germany, Australia, UK, and the US. A central aim of this project is to understand the moderating and mediating factors in the association between NSWS and child and parental wellbeing, and whether these relationships vary across countries with different family policies and working time regimes. The project will advance our knowledge by: 1. Examining the consequences of NSWS for parents" mental health and psychological wellbeing. 2. Identifying the potential effects of NSWS on child wellbeing and factors that moderate and mediate these effects. 3. Analysing differences in the associations between NSWS and child wellbeing across Germany, Australia, the UK, and the US.

Funding Agency

German Science Foundation

Programme

DFG Funding

Summary

Gender inequalities in mental health are pervasive: across the world women consistently show higher levels of depression and anxiety than men. Research has found that parents, and especially mothers, are particularly at risk of suffering mental health problems like distress, anxiety, and depression. However, the exact mechanisms that explain differences in mental health between mothers and fathers remain poorly understood. This project will contribute to close this major knowledge gap in science. The project conducts the first exhaustive study of how parenthood affects the mental health trajectories of men and women over the life course. This project will make crucial scientific innovations by merging high-quality large-scale longitudinal survey data (collected annually between 1991 and 2021) with rich qualitative longitudinal data from 30 heterosexual couples (collected before and after childbirth) to show how exactly parenthood affects men"s and women"s mental health. The project will make a ground-breaking contribution to science by: (1) identifying the long-term factors that predict women"s and men"s mental health trajectories across parenthood transitions; (2) disentangling the precise micro-level mechanisms that shape gender differences in mental health around childbirth; (3) establishing the causal effect of childcare and work-family policy reforms on mothers" and fathers" positive mental health. The project focuses on the United Kingdom, an interesting case of study for which we have the best available data. Results will have important applications elsewhere, including Ireland. This project will make a strong impact in different domains. The project will provide unique new evidence on gender, well-being, health, and parenthood to contribute to current efforts in meeting UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG): `Gender Equality Goals" (SDG 5) and `Good Health and Well-Being Goals" (SDG 3). The project findings will be widely disseminated, not only within leading scientific networks, but also among policy makers, practitioners, and the large public.

Funding Agency

Irish Research Council

Programme

Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship

Summary

The overall goal of DIGYMATEX is to provide evidence-based tools that will assist in understanding and measuring children's digital maturity. These tools are intended to be used e.g. by families, schools, and policy stakeholders. The first tool is the development of an innovative and market-ready instrument - the Digital Youth Maturity Index (DYMI) - as a cloud-based open-access tool in order to establish and implement a comprehensive understanding and taxonomy of children's digital maturity leading to the prediction and explanation of benefits and risks regarding children's ICT-related behaviour. The Digital Youth Maturity Index will act as a measurement tool for classification and segmentation of user groups as well as a behavioural prediction tool based on machinelearning techniques. The second tool is the development and application of the DiGYou-program - a technology-related solution and recommendation program, which is based on as well as supports the application of the DYMI. The two innovative tools will directly target the main impact goals associated with the call. With the Digital Youth Maturity Index (DMYI), the project will be able to develop and implement a comprehensive taxonomy, which will inform relevant stakeholders and practitioners on the long-term effects of ICT on child behaviour. Furthermore, with the DMYI in combination with the DigYou3-program, we will develop concrete solutions in order to contribute to a safer and more beneficial use of digital technologies by children and we will be able to formulate recommendations in support of national and European policies in the field. DYGIMATEX - builds on an inter-disciplinary, multimethod approach by integrating expertise, methods and knowledge from different research areas like business management, psychology, sociology, neuroscience, media and information systems, as well as industry partners (i.e., from IOT, food, telecommunication) and policy stakeholders (i.e., education, EU policy).

Funding Agency

European Commission

Programme

Horizon 2020 / -SC6- TRANSFORMATIONS-07-2019-RIA

Summary

This project will adopt a novel multi-method longitudinal design with data from the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study to investigate how children's time-use patterns contribute to the reproduction of social inequalities in contemporary digitalised societies. The project will answer: (1) how time-use patterns evolve from early childhood to early adulthood in different socioeconomic groups; (2) how children's time use impact child development processes across socioeconomic groups; (3) how can parental resources and parenting values influence child time use in ways that shape social inequalities in child development; (4) what meaning do parents and children attribute to their daily activities in different social classes. By providing unique evidence on how children's specific activities affect social inequalities in life-course development in contemporary digitalised societies, this project will contribute to ongoing debates on public policies, child well-being and social inequalities in Ireland and internationally. The findings will be actively disseminated through (inter)national media sources and stakeholders that are accessible to professionals, civil organisations, policy makers and the public.

Funding Agency

Irish Research Council

Programme

Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship