Digital Inequities and Well-being in Middle Childhood During COVID-19 : Testing the Third-Level Divide Across 18 Societies

The COVID-19 pandemic made digital technologies essential for children, yet their impact on socioeconomic disparities in well-being remained unclear. Leveraging a cross-national dataset of 19,502 children across 18 societies collected between March and August 2021—a period dominated by the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma SARS-CoV-2 variants but preceding the mass transmission of Omicron – this study examines whether digitalization mitigated or exacerbated socioeconomic inequalities in child well-being. We evaluate three dimensions of the digital divide – internet quality (first-level), digital activities (second-level), and differential returns by socioeconomic status (SES) (third-level) – to see how access and use shape hedonic and eudaimonic well-being across family SES. Our findings show high-quality internet access boosts children’s well-being, but digital activities have divergent effects: interacting with friends online consistently improves well-being, social media use undermines it, and online gaming yields mixed outcomes. Critically, higher-SES children reaped greater benefits from quality internet and online social interactions, revealing a third-level digital divide. These results highlight how digital inequities drive well-being disparities and underscore the need for more targeted and inclusive ICT policies in times of crisis.