Christer Hyggen

About

Christer Hyggen is a Senior Researcher (Forsker I) at NOVA, OsloMet, with a PhD in Sociology from the University of Oslo. His research focuses on youth studies, digital transformation, social inequality, and welfare trajectories. Hyggen’s work examines how young people navigate risk, opportunity, and identity in both digital and offline contexts, with particular attention to digital everyday life, sexual and social vulnerability, and the interplay between structural conditions and individual agency.

Field of study

Youth Psykisk helse Unemployment Work Motivation Marginalisering

Research groups

Youth Research

Research projects

Ongoing research projects

National Safety Survey
The project will map concern for crime and victims of crime in Norway.
Sexual Harassment in Young People’s Digital Everyday Lives
In this project the researchers will investigate how young people aged 13–19 experience and cope with sexual harassment online.

Completed research projects

DigiGen – The Impact of Technological Transformations on the Digital Generation
DigiGen aims to develop knowledge about how children and young people use and are affected by the technological transformations in their everyday lives.
Digital Leisure for All
The project explores how youth clubs and digital meeting places can serve as inclusive arenas for young people in a digital age.
Empowering youth and co-creating social innovations and policymaking through youth-focused citizen social science (YouCount)
YouCount will, through co-creative youth citizen social science (Y-CSS), with youth aged 15 to 29 years as citizen scientists, produce new knowledge of positive drivers for social inclusion of youth at risk of exclusion, as well as create innovation and new policies.
Local Match in Refugee Resettlement
This project aims to discover how the government can better match newly arrived refugees with Norwegian municipalities through better linking of settlement, skills, and labour needs.
Minority Students in Upper Secondary School
This project is about school satisfaction, educational drive and school performance among students with immigrant background in Norwegian upper secondary school.
Negotiating Early Job Insecurity and Labour Market Exclusion in Europe (NEGOTIATE)
NEGOTIATE is a research project examining the long- and short-term consequences of job insecurity and labour market exclusion of young people.
Practices and policies of belonging among minority and majority children of low-income families (BELONG)
This project seeks to increase current knowledge of the practices causing marginalization and social exclusion of minority and majority children of low-income families.
Sports Research at the Ungdata Centre
The project aims to update and widen our knowledge about participation in sports and physical activity and experiences with sports among children and young people in Norway.
The Consequences of Growing up in Low-income Families
This project will do a review of existing research on the consequences of growing up in low-income families in Norway.
Young People and Political Extremism
NOVA has initiated a research project about political attitudes and engagement among Norwegian youth. Trust and mistrust in societal and political institutions among ordinary and radical youth is central to the study.

Scientific publications

Borch, Anita ; Løvgren, Mette ; Hyggen, Christer (2025). Belonging matters: a scoping review of survey instruments—prevalent measures and omissions. Social Psychology of Education. Vol. 28.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-025-10062-4

Overå, Stian; Bakken, Anders ; Hyggen, Christer (2024). Prevalence and Characteristics of Female and Male Esports Players among Norwegian Youth: A General Population Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH). Vol. 21.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21091136

Symeonaki, Maria; Hyggen, Christer ; Parsanoglou, Dimitris; Mifsud, Louise ; Stamou, Giorgos (2024). Investigating Patterns of Digital Socialisation During Leisure Through Multimodal Social Research. Holmarsdottir, Halla Bjørk; Seland, Idunn; Hyggen, Christer; Roth, Maria (Ed.). Understanding The Everyday Digital Lives of Children and Young People. Springer Nature.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46929-9_5

Rustad, Mikkel Bertram ; Parsanoglou, Dimitris; Symeonaki, Maria; Mifsud, Louise ; Hyggen, Christer ; Ghetau, Cosmin (2024). ‘Of gaming and other demons’: Defining children and young people’s meaningful leisure activities in the digital era. Holmarsdottir, Halla Bjørk; Seland, Idunn; Hyggen, Christer; Roth, Maria (Ed.). Understanding The Everyday Digital Lives of Children and Young People. Springer Nature.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3357461

Holmarsdottir, Halla Bjørk ; Seland, Idunn ; Hyggen, Christer ; Roth, Maria (2024). Understanding The Everyday Digital Lives of Children and Young People. ISBN: 9783031469282. 350 p. Springer Nature.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/5201078

Holmarsdottir, Halla Bjørk ; Seland, Idunn ; Hyggen, Christer (2024). How can we understand the everyday digital lives of children and young people?. Holmarsdottir, Halla Bjørk; Seland, Idunn; Hyggen, Christer; Roth, Maria (Ed.). Understanding The Everyday Digital Lives of Children and Young People. Springer Nature.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3577026

Løvgren, Mette ; Hyggen, Christer (2023). Barns bruk av sosiale medier. Om ensomhet, samvær med venner og livskvalitet blant jenter og gutter. Norsk sosiologisk tidsskrift. Vol. 7.
https://doi.org/10.18261/nost.7.6.4

Seland, Idunn ; Hyggen, Christer ; Holmarsdottir, Halla Bjørk ; Kapella, Olaf; Parsanoglou, Dimitris; Sisaks, Merike (2022). Conditions contributing to positive and negative outcomes of children's ICT use: Protocol for scoping review. Societies. Vol. 12.
https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12050125

Smette, Ingrid ; Hyggen, Christer ; Bredal, Anja (2021). Foreldrerestriksjoner blant minoritetsungdom: omfang og mønstre i og utenfor skolen. Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning (TfS). Vol. 62.
https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.1504-291X-2021-01-01

Seland, Idunn ; Hyggen, Christer (2021). The digital generation. Representations of a generational digital divide. Falch-Eriksen, Asgeir; Takle, Marianne; Britt, Slagsvold (Ed.). Generational Tensions and Solidarity Within Advanced Welfare States. p. 133-152. Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003129592-8

See all publications

These publications are obtained from Norwegian Research Information Repository. The list may be incomplete.