The paper presents the methodology, methods and results of empirical research (2010—2018) of a social situation of development of the digital generation. The digital childhood and digital socialization as social and psychological phenomena are conceptualized in the optics of the cultural-historical paradigm. Modern methods of the analysis of digital reality are considered: the meta-analytical and longitude approaches working with big data, experimental designs on small samplings, the analysis of social networks and some other. The author offers the integrative concept for studying of phenomenology of the digital childhood and socialization (features of cognitive and personal development, relationship with the external world, social and cultural practices). The final conclusion — modern psychology needs the transdisciplinary association of various methodological strategies which will be adequate to requirements of the rapidly changing world and a new social situation of development of children and teenagers.

This chapter reports on a study conducted in seven countries in which young children's (aged under 8) digital practices in the home were examined. The study explored family practices with regard to access to and use of technologies, tracing the ways in which families managed risks and opportunities. Seventy families participated in the study and interviews were undertaken with both parents and children, separately and together, in order to address the research aims. This chapter focuses on the data relating to parental mediation of young children's digital practices. Findings indicate that parents used a narrow range of strategies in comparison to parents of older children, primarily because they considered their children too young to be at risk when using technologies. However, children's own reports suggested that some were able to access online sites independently from a young age and would have benefitted from more support and intervention. The implications of the study for future research and practice are considered.

Background. Digital socialization is understood to be mediated by all available digital technological processes for mastering and appropriating a social experience online. Understanding of this new type of socialization requires studying parental mediation strategies for children’s online activity, as well as the level of digital literacy of both children and parents, including through the prism of adolescents’ confrontation with online risks. Objective. To study digital socialization and the role of parents in this process; to reveal relationships between parental user activity, mediation, and digital competence, and adolescents’ user activity, digital competence, and experience of online risks. Design. The study was conducted on the basis of the EU Kids Online 2017–2019 survey methodology. The sample consisted of 1,553 schoolchildren aged 12–17 and 1,219 parents of adolescents the same age, all from the Russian Federation. Results. The findings show that parents underestimate the online risks faced by adolescents, especially the most common communication and content online risks. Adolescents often do not notice parental “restrictive” and “active“ mediation of their online activities. Adolescents’ request for parental help with their online difficulties depends not on the parents’ digital competence, but on their active mediation. In following parental active mediation and safety mediation strategies, adolescents are more likely to face online risks, but at the same time they use active coping strategies. The negative relationship between the adolescents’ digital competence and parental restrictive mediation and technical control suggests that excessive control and limitations hinder the development of knowledge and skills in the safe mastering of the Internet. Conclusion. The digital gap between adolescents and parents is observed both in confrontation with online risks and awareness of this experience, and in the application of parental mediation strategies. Parental active mediation provides stronger digital socialization and more constructive ways of coping with the threats of the digital world – online risks, which are the consequence of deep immersion into this world.

The article is a review of empirical studies on the problem of children and adolescents’ videogaming and its effects on academic performance and attention problems (including ADHD). Despite many types of research projects, and the variety of their designs and methods, the consistent point of view on how videogaming affect school marks and cognitive developments of schoolers of different ages is missing. There is an evidence of both negative and positive effects of videogaming on academic performance and ADHD; some results also show no significant effect. Diversity of research results may be caused by basic methodological position of research teams — whether videogaming is studied as a form of addiction, or normal leisure activity; a place which videogaming holds in conglomerate of determinants of children’ well-being; specificity of methods which are used for assess of academic performance, attention problems and intensiveness of videogaming.