ABSTRACT

Children’s influence on the purchase of mobile phones, particularly among poor children, received little research attention. To study the dilemma children from poor home face between strong desire to be part of the media peer culture within the context of family’s financial distress, and hence, limited access to mobile phones, this paper utilized vignette as a tool to elicit children’s thoughts and considerations in whether to purchase mobile phones. Sixty children from families receiving government financial assistance were interviewed. Relational influence lens stemmed from social relations theory were sensitizing lens used to analyse children’s decision processes. Data analysis revealed three levels of themes in the way children interpreted and strategized their decision, namely: individualistic, dyadic relational and communal relational themes. The findings challenge the notion that immediate gratification dominates the decision-making frame of low-income people. Instead, poor children demonstrate sophisticated abilities to consider the needs at multiple levels of their ecological contexts. Evidence from this study supports the need for conceptual extension of theorizing children beyond individualistic agents but as relational agents in the relational and structural contexts in which they are embedded.

IMPACT SUMMARY

a. Prior State of Knowledge: Summarize what is known about the topic.

Early media research was guided by unidirectional models where mainly parental influence on children was considered. Such research treated parents as agents in media decisions in the family but considered children largely as recipients and outcomes of parental choices.

b. Novel Contributions: Summarize the primary contributions the findings make to the field.

This paper illustrates the novel lens of utilizing a relational perspective of the children’s agency which adds a nuanced understanding of the ways in which children in low-income contexts, navigate personal desires for mobile device and family needs.

c. Practical Implications:

The expression of the agency of children from low-income homes warrants researchers and practitioners’ attention because children actively contribute to family resilience and the well-being of family members.

摘要

儿童对购买手机的影响，特别是在贫困儿童中，很少受到研究关注。为了研究来自贫困家庭的儿童在家庭经济困难的背景下面临成为媒体同伴文化的强烈愿望以及因​​此限制使用手机的困境，本文利用小插曲作为引发儿童思想和考虑的工具在是否购买手机。采访了来自接受政府财政援助家庭的 60 名儿童。源于社会关系理论的关系影响透镜是用于分析儿童决策过程的敏感透镜。数据分析揭示了儿童解释和制定决策的方式的三个主题，即：个人主义、二元关系和公共关系主题。研究结果挑战了立即满足支配低收入人群决策框架的观念。相反，贫困儿童表现出复杂的能力，可以在其生态环境的多个层面考虑需求。这项研究的证据支持需要将理论化儿童的概念扩展到个人主义代理之外，而是作为关系代理在他们所嵌入的关系和结构环境中。

影响总结

一种。先前的知识状态：总结有关该主题的已知信息。

早期的媒体研究以单向模型为指导，主要考虑父母对儿童的影响。此类研究将父母视为家庭媒体决策的代理人，但主要将儿童视为父母选择的接受者和结果。

湾。新贡献：总结研究结果对该领域的主要贡献。

本文说明了利用儿童机构的关系视角的新视角，它增加了对低收入环境中儿童如何驾驭个人对移动设备和家庭需求的方式的细致理解。

C。实际影响：

来自低收入家庭的儿童的能动性表达值得研究人员和从业者的关注，因为儿童积极地为家庭复原力和家庭成员的幸福做出了贡献。