Digital Technology and Young Children's Well-Being: A Bibliometric Mapping of Global Research Trends (2020–2025)

Abstract

Digital technology is now part of many young children’s everyday lives, bringing both learning opportunities and concerns about developmental well-being. Although research in this area has expanded quickly, it is spread across fields such as developmental psychology, educational technology, and public health, and there is still limited integration of how children’s well-being is represented within this broader literature. To address this gap, this study mapped the structural and thematic development of research on digital technology and young children’s well-being from 2020 to 2025 by analysing 599 peer-reviewed journal articles indexed in Scopus. The analysis was conducted using VOSviewer version 1.6.20 and included annual publication trends, keyword co-occurrence mapping, country co-authorship analysis, and source co-citation analysis. The findings show that annual output increased from 64 publications in 2020 to 158 in 2025, with the most noticeable growth occurring after 2023. Keyword co-occurrence analysis revealed two clearly different strands of research, one focused on risks, especially mental health, social media, and parent-child interaction, and another focused on opportunities, particularly educational technology, game-based learning, and emerging tools such as virtual reality. Country analysis showed strong dominance by Western countries, led by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, while smaller but visible Asian clusters included Malaysia and Hong Kong. Source co-citation analysis showed that the field draws mainly from developmental psychology, educational technology, and public health journals. Overall, this study offers an updated and integrated picture of the field, highlights conceptual and geographical gaps, and lays the groundwork for a more coherent framework for sustainable digital practices in early childhood education.