Authors: Geir Gunnlaugsson, Thomas Andrew Whitehead, Fatou N’dure Baboudóttir, Aladje Baldé, Zeca Jandi, Hamadou Boiro, Jónína Einarsdóttir
Site of publication: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Type of publication: Research paper
Date of publication: December 2020
Introduction
With the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals 2016–2030 (SDGs), world leaders pledged to leave no one behind and called for integrated action across sectors to tackle complex development challenges. Since its adoption, adolescents have increasingly been in focus for global health policy to support the ‘SDG generation to realise their rights to health, wellbeing, education and full participation in society, and thereby enable them to attain their full potential as adults.
The focus on youth is important for several reasons. First and foremost, this generation will be the world leaders of the future, making important political and economic decisions which impact global development. Secondly, the number of people aged 10–24 is the largest in history, standing at over 1.8 billion as of 2016. Thirdly, adolescents are “biologically, emotionally and developmentally primed for engagement beyond their families and the media, in particular social media, offers that opportunity”. Digital technology plays an important role in achieving the SDGs, not only through Goal 9 (Industry, innovation, and infrastructure), but as a driver for the fulfilment of all the goals. This is important for young people who currently are the most connected demographic globally, with 71% of 15–24-year-olds being online, compared to 48% of the total population, and those under the age of 18 making up around one-third of all internet users around the world.
Background to Study
Based on data from the most recent census (2009), adolescents aged 14–19 years comprised about a quarter of the Bissau population. The country is characterized by ethnic and cultural diversity. About 45% of the population adheres to Islam (mostly Fula, Mandinga and Beafada). Other ethnic groups (Balanta, Manjaco, Mancanha and Papel people) are the largest, in addition to smaller groups such as Bijagós, Felupe and Mansoanca) who adhere to the Christian religion (22%; Catholics and diverse Protestant/Evangelic churches) and various local religious practices. The official language, Portuguese, is spoken by 11–14%, most of whom belong to the educated elite in the capital. Kriol, a Portuguese-based Creole language, de facto lingua franca, is spoken as a first language by about 15%, and today it is estimated that about 90% of the population speak Kriol. Although only a small proportion of children speaks Portuguese, it is the language of teaching at all levels of education. Irrespective of school form, either public or private, the curriculum is the same in line with guidelines from the Ministry of Education.
Almost four out of ten primary school-age children, irrespective of gender, are out-of-school, and fewer than one-third of children start school at the correct age. Only 14% of children who enrol in grade 1 complete grade 12 in secondary schools. Based on information from the Ministry of Education and Higher Education for the academic year 2014–2015 (most recent available), in total there were 31,387 students registered in the 7th to 10th grade in public and private schools in Bissau, of whom 51.6% were boys.
Aims of the Study
In the context of schools in a low-income country, here Guinea-Bissau, the aims are to describe, explore and analyse socioeconomic determinants for adolescents´ access to and usage of digital technology, and its implications. We hypothesise that in this privileged group of adolescents’, access will be uneven, shaped by socioeconomic conditions, while the impact of its use is shared with adolescents elsewhere.
Discussion
Access and Usage
In our survey, 79% of respondents reported using a mobile phone with internet capability in the last 12 months, a much higher proportion compared to laptop/desktop usage. This is in line with other research in the field, with one study showing that most millennials in South Africa accessed the internet through a combination of mobiles and personal computers (88%) compared to 12% who only used a computer to access the internet [33]; mobile phones are cheap, easy to use and widely accessible in the market in contrast to expensive desktops or laptops, in addition to their dependence on stable access to electricity. Elsewhere on the continent, 74% of Zambians had mobile phones, but only 7% had internet access in the homes, with ownership levels for boys aged 15–19 years being higher (42%) than girls of the same age (32%) . In Mozambique, another former Portuguese colony in SSA, a similar proportion (80% of urban households) were found to have mobile phone access [63], and in Liberia, 81% of urban households had mobile phone access, compared to only 10% having computer access in the house. One potential reason for the more widespread usage of mobile phones compared to desktops and laptops is that mobiles are not considered the individual devices they are perceived to be in Europe, or the USA Phone sharing is a common concept in SSA, which inflates the proportion of populations that have mobile phone access, compared to computers, which are less portable and harder to share.
Almost four out of ten primary school-age children, irrespective of gender, are out-of-school, and fewer than one-third of children start school at the correct age. Only 14% of children who enrol in grade 1 complete grade 12 in secondary schools. Based on information from the Ministry of Education and Higher Education for the academic year 2014–2015 (most recent available), in total there were 31,387 students registered in the 7th to 10th grade in public and private schools in Bissau, of whom 51.6% were boys
This is backed up by a 2018 study in South Africa which claimed that 76% of respondents who did not own a mobile phone had access to one through sharing. Another study stated that 17% of students in South Africa said they shared a phone, which explained why despite 23% of respondents not owning a handset, 96% still claimed to use one on a typical day. The proportion of phone sharing among adolescents in Guinea-Bissau is not known and needs further research.
Overall, internet access has been rapidly increasing with more than half of the global population estimated to have had access in 2018. The data expose, however, a global digital divide; in 2016, three out of four people had internet access in high-income countries, compared to less than one out of five in those least developed. In SSA, South Africa was the most connected country with 54% of the population having internet access, compared to 4% for Guinea-Bissau; more recent data indicate a gradual increase to 7.5% of the total Bissau-Guinean population. Our data, from an albeit more privileged group, showed a more positive representation, with around two-thirds of students surveyed reporting some usage of the internet for one of seven listed activities.
Globally, around 40% of youth are said to use the internet to learn about things for school or health-related information, while only 9% of global youth said they used it to read about politics and improving the community.
Overall, internet access has been rapidly increasing with more than half of the global population estimated to have had access in 2018. The data expose, however, a global digital divide; in 2016, three out of four people had internet access in high-income countries, compared to less than one out of five in those least developed
Research has indicated that when Africans go online, they predominantly spend time on social media platforms, with other activities becoming less important. This raises questions over whether the internet is more of a useful tool for education or simply a distraction. For example, some claim that the increasing use of phones by students causes more disruption in the classroom than good, with increases in late-night calls, bullying and harassment.
Our data do not indicate better grades in languages (Portuguese and English/French) for those with access to digital technology compared with those without access. This lack of association might indicate deficient knowledge on how to properly use the technology to improve individual skills, compounded further by lack of support and guidance from teachers who themselves often lack access and skills to positively benefit from it. This situation is further aggravated in the current COVID-19 pandemic, as estimates indicate that only 6% of pre-primary to upper secondary students in SSA can potentially be reached through the internet by remote learning policies.
Determinants of Usage and Barriers
It has been alluded to in one study that education of the user and in particular, English language proficiency (in South Africa) was a key determinant of whether the respondent used the internet. The logic behind this is that most of the content on the internet is in the major world languages, and thus if you do not speak these languages, you would be excluded from a lot of internet uses. In South Africa, about 20% of respondents said they could not easily read or write in English, and of those, only 3% used the internet. In our survey in Guinea-Bissau, rather than English proficiency, we compared this metric using Portuguese. Portuguese is the 9th most spoken language in the world, and we would hypothesise that having Portuguese spoken in the home (assuming that to equate to fluency in the language) should positively influence internet usage.
Education has been identified as a major determinant of internet usage in the USA, with those with higher education more likely to adopt the technology compared to those with less education. In Zambia, internet usage among women and men generally increased with better education, with 79% of women and 89% of men with higher education using the internet in the last 12 months compared to just 1% of women and 6% of men without higher education. Our sample included school-attending adolescents; therefore, we can instead look at whether education of their parents affects internet usage. Adolescents who reported usage of the internet were overall more likely to have at least one parent who had started or completed university or technical training compared with those whose parents had less education. However, such an impact disappeared in the multivariate nominal logistic regression model.
Consequences of Technology Usage
With internet access comes greater exposure to advertising, through online advertisements by social media influencers, on video platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, and at the sides of most web pages. Another way the internet can influence tobacco or alcohol consumption is through peer pressure, in that those who are friends with other people who drink and smoke and see them doing so through social media channels, for example, may be more influenced to do so themselves.
Using our data, we asked the question: Does social media usage to connect with friends, and other interactions on the internet, impact usage of alcohol or smoking cigarettes? The criteria for social media usage for this analysis included those who answered that they had used any social media at least sometimes in the last 12 months; the criteria for alcohol, or smoking cigarettes were lifetime experience in use. Adolescents who reported lifetime experience of either smoking cigarettes or consuming alcohol were significantly more likely to have used social media compared to those who did not have that experience; this association held up in a multivariate nominal logistic regression model for smoking cigarettes but not for lifetime experience of drinking alcohol. However, our bivariate results indicate support to another study that suggested that the rise of social media usage sees more young people exposed to and displaying pro-alcohol messages. Social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, have conducive formats for sharing pictures with a culture of anonymity and privacy, and posted content is likely to be seen not only by peers but by younger users, who are more impressionable. Although this may remain relevant for smoking, as well as for alcohol abuse, what seems to have more of an impact are movie portrayals of smoking, as well as peer and parent smoking. Social media usage is obviously linked with internet access, and with that comes more exposure to both peer activities and also media (music videos and movies). Fifty-one percent of survey participants in Guinea-Bissau had an experience of using the internet for entertainment, which includes these activities.
In addition to alcohol and smoking, some sources claim that digital technology adoption intensifies cases of bullying in children, which is known to affect wellbeing. Adolescents in Bissau who had experience of using social media were more than twice as likely to have participated in a group that teased others.
Social media and other online platforms provide easier access to others, and over time bullying can become normalised and even rewarded with increased social status]. Furthermore, the veil of anonymity that the internet and social media can provide can also lead to more bullying, because the lack of face-to-face encounters prevents many of the negative consequences of bullying from occurring. Another study from South Africa showed that one in three children had experienced cyberbullying and that 47% of those had been bullied through a mobile phone, showing that the devices are being used as a tool to increase bullying frequency.
Bullying is most common in the west and central African regions, with five of the top ten countries for bullying rates (65–81%) being situated in Africa. Girls reported more indirect bullying, while boys experienced direct bullying. Our data from Bissau showed little gender differences. Boys were marginally more likely to have participated in bullying behavior than girls, although we lack data on the gender of the victims and the exact nature of the bullying, themes that merit further research.
In addition to alcohol and smoking, some sources claim that digital technology adoption intensifies cases of bullying in children, which is known to affect wellbeing. Adolescents in Bissau who had experience of using social media were more than twice as likely to have participated in a group that teased others
Overall, only 10% of boys and 11% of girls had participated in the teasing of another individual. These bullying rates are relatively low compared to the rest of Africa, which could be due to the fact that the line of the questioning came from an accusatory angle, rather than an experience angle—i.e., if the question had been phrased “How often have you been teased by another group?”, the percentages might be higher.
In terms of mental health, increased usage of digital technologies, in particular, the usage of social media, has been said to also increase anxiety and low self-esteem. According to one study, one potential hazard of social media is a growing preoccupation with body image, through exposure to media output on glamorous celebrities and comparison with friends on social media. It has also been reported that excessive use of digital technology can contribute to childhood depression and anxiety, due to the immersion in screens creating an internet dependency. Although 8% of the participants in Guinea-Bissau had said they often felt tense in the past week, they were almost twice as likely to report tension if they had experience of using social media—interestingly, the only statistically significant explanatory variable.
Similarly, with depression, adolescents in our survey who used social media were significantly more likely to have felt sad or blue in the last week, compared to those that had not. Facebook and Instagram usage has been directly and indirectly correlated with symptoms of depression, although the seriousness of symptoms increases with age. These findings beg the question: are adolescents in SSA at a higher risk of suffering from mental health conditions due to newly increased usage of these tools?
Our results highlight the need for increased awareness among Bissau-Guinean adolescents on the potentially negative consequences of the usage of digital media. Not all are familiar with the technology, a fact that is likely to apply as well to parents and teachers alike. For preventive measures, the most effective platforms include TV or radio programmed, for example, supported with data from the survey. Parents also need to be made aware of the potential negative consequences of the usage of the technology in the daily lives of their children, and by practicing kind parenting styles, they could also become more effective in preventing cyberbullying against or by their children.
Furthermore, school headmasters and teachers could engage in kind and reasoning discussion with students in class as a preventive measure against cyberbullying, to improve their health and wellbeing in the digital age. Interestingly, SSA has been identified as the next big market by international operators of gambling, an additional threat to Bissau-Guinean adolescents of which parents and teachers should be made aware of and needs further research in the setting. Finally, concerted actions are also needed by social media companies, such as Facebook and Instagram, to develop internet policies in collaborative partnerships that protect children from cyberspace risks.
Strength and Limitations
One strength of the present study builds on it’s reaching out to school-attending adolescents in the capital Bissau, randomly selected for participation from a specially compiled register targeting adolescents aged 15–16 years, in both public and private schools. The survey methodology built on gained experience within the Planet Youth collaboration with similar surveys having been implemented in 32 countries and 111 communities.
It is the first study of its kind in the setting. However, there are limitations. Ethnicity and religion were not included in the statistical analysis because the application is complex in the context of multi-ethnic Guinea-Bissau, and results do not render themselves for a proper interpretation. Another limitation is that the study included only school-attending adolescents, a privileged urban group in the setting, thus excluding out-of-school adolescents, and those living outside the capital Bissau.
Conclusions
The main conclusion of our study is that even in this privileged group of adolescents in the capital Bissau, access to digital technology is low in Guinea-Bissau. This provides more evidence to the existing global digital divide, in addition to the gender gap in the usage of the technology. The evidence seems to link predominantly negative consequences to the usage of the devices, in particular social media. Still, these are problems adolescents also face in Europe and other high-income countries and are an expression of commonality of adolescents’ experiences across different world regions.
This does not equate to digital technology being bad. The lesson to be learned is, therefore, about educating the users of the technology to obtain the biggest benefits. Adolescents who learn to use the internet to search for information, help with studies, and gain experience using tools such as word processors will be better equipped for future studies and employment. An inevitable consequence of increased media usage is that adolescents will face higher exposure to advertisements, potentially for harmful products such as alcohol and tobacco, and peers and celebrities engaging in activities we do not wish to see adolescents’ replicate.
However, if used correctly, the benefits of the internet and the technologies to increase communication has the potential to create more benefits than negatives. Since the adoption of the SDGs in 2015, the needs of adolescents—the SDG generation—have increasingly been in focus. Our results indicate that Bissau-Guinean adolescents are at a large risk of being left behind without improved opportunities to develop their digital skills and proficiency in preparation for a labour market that increasingly demands such experience and knowledge.