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High Speed Internet and the Widening Gender Gap in Adolescent Mental Health: Evidence from Hospital Records

Author

Listed:
  • Arenas-Arroyo, Esther

    (Vienna University of Economics and Business)

  • Fernández-Kranz, Daniel

    (IE Business School, Madrid)

  • Nollenberger, Natalia

    (IE University)

Abstract

Increases in mental health problems among adolescents have been concurrent with increased use of digital media, with bigger changes among girls after the mid-2010s. This study exploits exogenous variation in the deployment of optic fiber across Spanish provinces between 2007 and 2019 to analyze the effect of access to high-speed Internet (HSI) on hospital discharge diagnoses of behavioral and mental health cases among adolescents. We find a positive and significant impact on girls but not on boys. Exploring the mechanism behind these effects, we show that HSI increases addictive Internet use and significantly decreases time spent sleeping, doing homework, and socializing with family and friends. Girls again power all these effects. We find no evidence of an increase in online bullying. Finally, we show that fiber expansion harms the quality of the relationship between fathers and daughters, especially when that relationship suffers from a previous conflict. Our results help explain the observed widening gender gap in mental health among adolescents and are robust to various sensitivity tests.

Suggested Citation

  • Arenas-Arroyo, Esther & Fernández-Kranz, Daniel & Nollenberger, Natalia, 2022. "High Speed Internet and the Widening Gender Gap in Adolescent Mental Health: Evidence from Hospital Records," IZA Discussion Papers 15728, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15728
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. El costo de ser un nativo digital: efectos del acceso a internet en el desarrollo infantil
      by Natalia Nollenberger in Razones y personas: repensando Uruguay on 2023-07-27 22:37:00

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Sabatini, Fabio, 2023. "The Behavioral, Economic, and Political Impact of the Internet and Social Media: Empirical Challenges and Approaches," IZA Discussion Papers 16703, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    adolescents; high-speed internet; mental health;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software

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