Children’s social connections, internet usage and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Global South: evidence from Disrupting Harm

PURPOSE: There is a notable lack of studies investigating the mental health associations of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Global South, particularly with regard to the use of digital technologies. We aimed to investigate the cross-sectional associations of digital technology use with mental health indicators during the pandemic in 12 countries in the Global South. METHODS: We used data from the UNICEF Innocenti Disrupting Harm survey. The survey included a representative sample of 11,912 internet-using children aged 12-17 in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. We modelled the associations of social connection during lockdown and internet use during the pandemic with six different indicators of wellbeing in each country (excluding Tanzania, where there had been no lockdowns) and in the overall sample using robust linear and logistic regression. We controlled for a range of putative socioeconomic and demographic confounders and handled missing data using multiple imputation. RESULTS: We did not find clear evidence for any general associations of social connection or internet use with mental health indicators during lockdown across countries. Rather, our results are complex and demonstrate that the relationship depends heavily on an individual's context; not just on the country they are living in but also on their gender, urbanicity and other factors. Nonetheless, our results highlight key focus areas for further research. CONCLUSION: Extensive further research is needed to identify ways in which technology use, including internet use, might act as a risk or protective factor relevant to mental ill health among young people in the countries of the Global South.