青少年使用电子媒介的同伴效应——基于班级社交网络的视角

Peer Effects of Electronic Media Use Among Adolescents:A Class Social Network Perspective

青少年上网玩游戏、看电视花费的时间大幅增加,这一现象逐渐成为了全社会担忧的问题。现有关于同伴效应的研究中还没有关于使用电子媒介同伴效应的研究。文章使用"中国教育追踪调查"(CEPS)2013-2014学年七年级和九年级的随机分班数据分析青少年上网玩游戏和看电视的班级同伴效应。实证研究发现,上网玩游戏(看电视)的参与行为和花费时间都存在显著的正向同伴效应,该结果在使用工具变量或伪回归等方式排除相关效应之后仍然稳健。进一步分析同伴效应的影响机制发现,同学关系越好,青少年上网玩游戏受同伴的影响越大,但该机制对看电视的同伴效应影响不显著。父母对子女上网玩游戏(看电视)的严厉程度并不能改变同伴的影响。异质性的分析发现,上网玩游戏的同伴效应在性别之间没有差异,女生看电视的行为受同伴的影响更大。

With the popularity of Internet and intelligent electronic products,adolescents spend more time playing video games and watching TV online,which has gradually become a concern of the whole society.However,there is no research on the peer effects of electronic media in China.Using the 2013-2014 random class assignment data from China Education Panel Survey(CEPS),this paper analyzes the peer effects of playing video games and watching TV online among the students in seventh and ninth grades.We study the extended margin of peer effects from the participation behavior of playing video games(watching TV),and the intensive margin of peer effects from the time spent on playing video games(watching TV).The results suggest positive and significant peer effects in both participation and time spent in playing video games(watching TV).The probability of students playing video games(watching TV)increases by0.212%(0.286%)if the proportion of their classmates playing video games(watching TV)increases by 1%;while the time students spending on playing video games(watching TV)increases by 0.338(0.240)hours if their classmates spend 1 more hour playing video games(watching TV).The results are robust after excluding correlation effects using instrumental variables or pseudo regression.The analysis of the influence mechanism of peer effects shows that the better the relationship between classmates,the greater the peer effects of playing video games,but this mechanism has no significant influence on the peer effects of watching TV.The severity of parents to their children playing video games(watching TV)does not change peer effects.The results of heterogeneity analysis show that the proportion of peer participation affects the student behavior of playing video games or watching TV on weekdays or weekends,but the peer effects only significantly affect the time spent on weekends,and does not significantly affect the time spent on weekdays.There is no significant difference in peer effects between male and female students playing video games,but the peer effects of female students watching TV are greater.