Thomas Mezgebu
Pronouns: He/Him
Research Mentor(s): Olivia Richards
Research Mentor School/College/Department: / Information
Program: CG
Session: Session 5 (2:40pm – 3:30pm)
Authors: Thomas Mezgebu, Olivia Richards
Abstract
It is often said that the younger generations hold the key to becoming the next great leaders and creating a brighter future. However, mental health and well-being among the youth has been in dangerous decline in recent years, and is only further exacerbated by situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic. On that basis, the broader issues that this research is investigating surrounds child routines and the role of technology, with an aim to inform the design of technology that might positively contribute to child health and well-being. Our methodology included data collection from surveys and dyadic interviews with children ages 7-12 and their parents/grandparents. Analysis of survey data (n=33) was conducted in SPSS. The raw data was cleaned and exploratory analyses were performed that identified demographic information of sample participants, such as race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Following this, descriptive statistics were used to analyze a set of validated measures, such as the PSDQ and SSTQ, which score participants’ responses to various presented questions. In my research, I help uncover the correlation between these variables and the overarching role of technology in association to the performance of children and family health-related routines. It is hoped to identify a relationship between autonomy-granting parenting styles and positive well-being of children. These findings can strengthen further research in the emerging field of family informatics and help produce recommendations for technology design that take child and family perspectives into account, such as with the development of technological systems and mobile applications that support children’s routines.
