Digital inequalities and educational outcomes during childhood and adolescence: The role of the family and school context (Leo Röhlke)

The ‘digital revolution’ is still far from universal: While some children grow up surrounded by and interacting with screen media from an early age on, other children’s home environments are deliberately being kept technology-free. Large digital inequalities can also be observed between schools. The dissertation project analyses the links between these digital inequalities and parental socioeconomic status and child gender, asking: Which dimensions of digital inequalities really matter for educational outcomes, e.g., early cognitive development or vocational trajectories? Do they exacerbate or diminish previously existing inequalities of education? How does the digital revolution affect the intergenerational transmission of advantage (cultural capital) from parents to children? Statistical analyses are based on primary data from the DigiPrim project covering Swiss primary school students, secondary data from the TREE2 study (University of Bern), and international secondary datasets.

PhD Student: Leo Röhlke
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ben Jann (University of Berne), Prof. Dr. Stefanie Möllborn (Stockholm University)