Community Variations in Low-Income Latino Families’ Technology Adoption and Integration

Abstract

Constrained access to the Internet and new communication technologies is commonly associated with social disparities related to income, education, immigration status, age, and geography. Policymakers in many sectors—and particularly, in education—have placed their bets on increased technology access having the potential to mitigate broader social disparities. In the context of a national digital equity initiative, this study examines how parents and children of low-income Latino families incorporate new technologies into their everyday lives. Through a comparison of three demographically similar communities where discounted broadband is being offered to low-income families with school-age children, we take a bottom-up, communication-centered perspective on a top-down technology policy. Our ecological approach considers the intersection of macro- and meso-level factors that influence Latino families’ perceptions of technology and that shape their consequent adoption and integration decisions.

Keywords

technology families digital equity community immigration Latinos

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alper

Katz

V. S.

Clark

L. S.

(in press). Researching children, intersectionality, and diversity in the digital age. Journal of Children and Media.

Amabisca

(1999). Alone together: Social integration of immigrant students at the middle school level. The Multilingual Educator, 2(2), 10-14.

Archibald

R. C.

(2010, April 23). Arizona enacts stringent law on immigration. The New York Times. Retrieved from www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/politics/24immig.html

Ball-Rokeach

S. J.

Kim

Y. C.

Matei

(2001). Storytelling neighborhood paths to belonging in diverse urban environments. Communication Research, 28, 392-428.

Benítez

J. L.

(2006). Transnational dimensions of the digital divide among Salvadoran immigrants in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Global Networks, 6, 181-199.

Blumer

(1969). Symbolic interactionism: Perspective and method. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Brown

Patten

(2013). Hispanics of Mexican origin in the United States, 2011 (Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project). Retrieved from http://www.pewhispanic.org/2013/06/19/hispanics-of-mexican-origin-in-the-united-states-2011/

Cavanagh

(2013, June 6). Obama unveils proposal to overhaul federal E-rate program. Education Week. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2013/06/obama_unveils_proposal_to_over.html

Child Trends. (2012). Immigrant children. Retrieved from http://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=immigrant-children

10.

Clark

L. S.

(2013). The parent app: Understanding families in the digital age. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

11.

Crawford

(1995). Bilingual education: History, politics, theory and practice (4th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Bilingual Education Services.

12.

Creswell

J. W.

(1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

13.

Dailey

Bryne

Powell

Karaganis

Chung

(2010). Broadband adoption in low-income communities (Social Science Research Council). Retrieved from http://www.ssrc.org/publications/view/1EB76F62-C720-DF11-9D32-001CC477EC70/

14.

File

(2013). Computer and Internet use in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau). Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/p20-569.pdf

15.

Friedland

L. A.

(2001). Communication, community, and democracy toward a theory of the communicatively integrated community. Communication Research, 28, 358-391.

16.

Hampton

K. N.

(2010). Internet use and the concentration of disadvantage: Glocalization and the urban underclass. American Behavioral Scientist, 53, 1111-1132.

17.

Hargittai

(2010). Digital na(t)ives? Variation in Internet skills and uses among members of the “Net Generation.” Sociological Inquiry, 80, 92-113.

18.

Horrigan

(2014). Schools and broadband speeds: An analysis of gaps in access to high-speed internet for African American, Latino, low-income, and rural students (Federal Communications Commission). Retrieved from http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=60000978758

19.

Hughes

E. C.

(1958). Men and their work. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.

20.

Jenkins

(2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press.

21.

Johnson

Kominski

Smith

Tillman

(2005). Changes in the lives of U.S. children: 1990-2000 (Working Paper No. 78). Washington, DC: Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau.

22.

Katz

V. S.

(2010). How children use media to connect their families to the community: The case of Latinos in Los Angeles. Journal of Children and Media, 4, 298-315.

23.

Katz

V. S.

(2014). Kids in the middle: How children of immigrants negotiate community interactions for their families. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

24.

Katz

V. S.

Levine

M. H.

(2015). Connecting to learn: Promoting digital equity among America’s Hispanic families (The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop). Retrieved from http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/publication/connecting-to-learn-promoting-digital-equity-for-americas-hispanic-families/

25.

Kim

Y.-C.

Ball-Rokeach

S. J.

(2006). Community storytelling network, neighborhood context, and civic engagement: A multilevel approach. Human Communication Research, 32, 411-439.

26.

Kim

Y. C.

Jung

Cohen

Ball-Rokeach

(2004). Internet connectedness before and after September 11 2001. New Media & Society, 6, 611-631.

27.

LaRossa

(2005). Grounded theory and qualitative family research. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 837-857.

28.

Lee

Barron

(2015). Aprendiendo en casa: Media as a resource for learning among Hispanic-Latino Families (The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop). Retrieved from http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/publication/aprendiendo-en-casa-media-as-a-learning-tool-among-hispanic-latino-families/

29.

Levere

J. L.

(2013, March 20). Reaching those on the wrong side of the digital divide. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/business/a-campaign-to-help-people-learn-internet-skills.html

30.

Livingstone

(2007). From family television to bedroom culture: Young people’s media at home. In Devereux

(Ed.), Media studies: Key issues and debates (pp. 302-321). London, England: Sage.

31.

Livingstone

(2009). Children and the Internet. London, England: Polity Press.

32.

Livingstone

Helsper

(2007). Gradations in digital inclusion: Children, young people and the digital divide. New Media & Society, 9, 671-696.

33.

Lopez

Gonzalez-Barrera

Patten

(2013). Closing the digital divide: Latinos and technology adoption (Pew Hispanic Center). Retrieved from http://www.pewhispanic.org/2013/03/07/closing-the-digital-divide-latinos-and-technology-adoption/

34.

Lopez

Velasco

(2011). Childhood poverty among Hispanics sets record, leads nation: The toll of the great recession (Pew Hispanic Center). Retrieved from http://www.pewhispanic.org/2011/09/28/childhood-poverty-among-hispanics-sets-record-leads-nation/

35.

Louie

(2003). Media in the lives of immigrant youth. New Directions for Youth Development, 100, 111-130. doi:10.1002/yd.66

36.

Mayer

(2003). Living telenovelas/telenovelizing life: Mexican American girls’ identities and transnational telenovelas. Journal of Communication, 53, 479-495.

37.

Orellana

M. F.

Dorner

Pulido

(2003). Accessing assets: Immigrant youth’s work as family translators or “para-phrasers.” Social Problems, 50, 505-524.

38.

Park

R. E.

(1922). The immigrant press and its control. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers.

39.

Park

R. E.

(1925). The city. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

40.

Pugh

(2009). Longing and belonging: Parents, children, and consumer culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.

41.

Sampson

R. J.

(2012). Great American city: Chicago and the enduring neighborhood effect. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

42.

Strauss

Corbin

(1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

43.

Taylor

Lopez

M. H.

Martínez

Velasco

(2012). When labels don’t fit: Hispanics and their views of identity (Pew Hispanic Center). Retrieved from http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/04/04/when-labels-dont-fit-hispanics-and-their-views-of-identity/

44.

Taylor

S. J.

Bogdan

(1998). Introduction to qualitative research methods (3rd ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley.

45.

Tripp

L. M.

(2011). “The computer is not for you to be looking around, it is for schoolwork”: Challenges for digital inclusion as Latino immigrant families negotiate children’s access to the Internet. New Media & Society, 13, 552-567.

46.

U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2014). School meals eligibility guidelines. Retrieved from http://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/income-eligibility-guidelines

47.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (2015). Poverty guidelines, research and measurement. Retrieved from http://www.aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/index.cfm

48.

U.S. Department of Labor. (2015). Labor force statistics from the Current Population Survey. Retrieved from http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000

49.

Valenzuela

(1999). Gender roles and settlement activities among children and their immigrant families. American Behavioral Scientist, 42, 720-742.

50.

van Deursen

van Dijk

(2014). The digital divide shifts to differences in usage. New Media & Society, 16, 507-526.

51.

Zelizer

(2002). Kids and commerce. Childhood, 9, 375-396.