Do African American Male and Female Adolescents Differ in Technological Engagement?: The Effects of Parental Encourageme
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Do African American Male and Female Adolescents Differ in Technological Engagement?: The Effects of Parental Encouragement and Adolescent Technological Confidence Chun Tao 1
&
Kimberly A. Scott 1 & Kathryn S. McCarthy 2
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract African Americans, especially African American women, remain one of the most underrepresented groups in technology-based degrees and careers. However, little is known about whether gender differences permeate African American adolescents’ engagement in technology in earlier development, such as in middle and high school (ages 12–18). Drawing on an ecological and intersectional framework, we examined if African American male and female adolescents differed in technological engagement and what contextual factors affected their engagement. We hypothesized that parental encouragement would be associated with greater technological confidence in adolescents, which would be linked to more experiences with and interests in technology. Further, we investigated if these associations would vary by adolescents’ and parents’ gender. Survey data from 1041 African American parent-adolescent dyads highlighted that adolescents had less experience and interest with technical activities than with creative activities, especially among female adolescents. More parents encouraged adolescent sons but limited daughters to use technology, yet female adolescents reported greater technological confidence. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that adolescents’ technological confidence mediated the positive association between parental encouragement and adolescents’ technological engagement across all parent-adolescent dyads, but with some nuances. Our findings suggest that prospective gender studies and educational programs should consider the influences of parenting and gender on promoting African American adolescents’ technological involvement and confidence. Keywords Adolescent behavior . Digital technology . Parenting . Gender . African American . Intersectionality
African Americans, in general, and African American women, in particular, remain one of the most underrepresented groups in technology (College Board 2017; McAlear et al. 2018; National Science Foundation 2017; Ong et al. 2011; The White House on Women and Girls 2016). Recent evidence Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-020-01134-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Chun Tao [email protected] Kimberly A. Scott [email protected] Kathryn S. McCarthy [email protected] 1
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
2
Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
has demonstrated that in comparison to older generations, African American millennials (ages 25–34) are closing the digital divide with more active technological engagement (Nielson 2016; Rideout et al. 2011; Tynes and Mitchell 2014). As mobile technologies become ubiquitous, the digital divide has become less
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