Making stability dependable: stable cellphone access leads to better health outcomes for those experiencing poverty
INFORMATION COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY(2022)
摘要
The technology maintenance framework argues that digital access is unreliable and thus consequential for individual/social welfare. However, no one has demonstrated a causal effect of cell phone access on health and well-being. Using a 7-month longitudinal field experiment we investigated how stable cellphone access impacts health and quality of life of people experiencing poverty (N = 45, median annual income = $7,216). Participants received phone cards providing unlimited talk, text, and data (n = 23) or were given grocery store gift cards of the equivalent amount (n = 22). Over the course of the experiment, participants in the treatment group reported better health and quality of life compared to those in the control group. Emotional social support moderated this relationship in such a way that those with the least social support benefited the most from stable cellphone access (supporting a 'poor-get-richer' hypothesis). We present practical and theoretical implications in the discussion.
更多查看译文
关键词
Technology maintenance, ICTs, computer-mediated-communication, digital divide, mobile technology
AI 理解论文
溯源树
样例
生成溯源树,研究论文发展脉络
Chat Paper
正在生成论文摘要