IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unm/unumer/2025007.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Internet Access and Youth’s Mental Health and Well-being

Author

Listed:
  • Pham, Thi Trang

    (RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, Mt Economic Research Inst on Innov/Techn)

  • Wong, Pui Hang

    (Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, RS: GSBE MGSoG, RS: UNU-MERIT Theme 3, RS: UNU-MERIT Theme 4)

Abstract

This paper provides one of the first robust evidence on the impact of internet access on adolescents’ well-being and mental health in a low-income country context. We find reduced subjective well-being and increased measures of mental health disorders among young people in Ethiopia during 2020-2021 following internet diffusion. Our heterogeneity analysis reveals that the effects of internet access on mental health are unequal, with stronger negative impacts for adolescents from lower-wealth households. The mechanism analysis suggests that passive internet use, particularly among youth from less advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, might drive these negative outcomes. To address potential endogeneity, we employ instrumental variable techniques combined with fixed effects. The instrument is relevant based on network effect arguments and reasonably exogenous conditional on control variables and fixed effects. Our results offer policy implications regarding internet access and youth human capital development in the digital age and highlight the significance of social causes in shaping mental health.

Suggested Citation

  • Pham, Thi Trang & Wong, Pui Hang, 2025. "Internet Access and Youth’s Mental Health and Well-being," MERIT Working Papers 2025-007, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    • Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2025007
    DOI: 10.53330/GYMA8538
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ws/files/241640245/wp2025-007.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.53330/GYMA8538?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2025007. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ad Notten The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Ad Notten to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/meritnl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.