technical paper
Live - Globalized Adolescence: Tracking the Developmental Implications of Modern Globalization in Northern Thailand
Everyone seems to have an opinion about how teens today fundamentally differ from previous generations as a result of digital media expansion and other forces of modern globalization. Few research studies, however, have investigated this empirically by simultaneously tracking developmental and cultural change over time. This presentation will summarize early findings from field research in northern Thailand tracking stability and change in adolescent moral values over 11 years. In 2012, in-depth interviews were conducted and surveys were administered with 40 Millennial adolescents (Mage = 17.30), evenly divided across rural and urban settings. In 2023, the same data collection techniques were employed with 60 Gen Z adolescents (Mage = 17.47) in the same settings. Analysis of variance of moral values reported on the Ethical Values Assessment (McKenzie & Jensen, 2024; Padilla-Walker & Jensen, 2016) reveal significant change over time among rural and urban Thai adolescents, though the direction of change is at times surprising. Results will be contextualized alongside shifts in digital media availability and adolescent media use over the same 11 years. The discussion will consider what results suggest about how culturally-salient moral values do—and do not—change in the face of rapid technological and cultural change.