Explaining inequalities in vulnerable children’s digital skills: The effect of individual and social discrimination

Abstract

While the Internet is part of everyday life for many children, inequalities exist in their digital skills, with little known about the influence of perceived discrimination on these inequalities. Building on survey data collected from nationally representative samples of 10,820 children aged 12–16 in 14 European countries, we seek to understand whether and how disadvantaged children may fall behind their more advantaged peers across Europe with respect to digital skills, as well as the role played by perceived individual and social discrimination in acquiring these skills. The findings show that perceived individual and social discrimination affect the relationships of socio-cultural resources (age, gender, preference for online social interaction) and personal resources (self-efficacy) with digital skills. Therefore, even in countries where Internet use is an integral part of children’s lives, interventions should be made to prevent perceived offline discrimination translating into digital inequalities.

The outcomes of gaining digital skills for young people’s lives and wellbeing: A systematic evidence review

“…Distinguished through analyses of skewness and kurtosis, confirmatory factor analysis, difficulty estimation and equivalence testing, and validated through cognitive interviews and pilot surveys, the four dimensions are defined in Table 1. Each dimension encompasses functional subskills and digital knowledge (or critical literacy), and all are important for wellbeing in a digital society (Helsper et al, 2021; Mascheroni et al, 2020). They can also be combined to generate more complex skills – for instance, the skills required for problem-solving online, or to protect one’s privacy or safety online, participate in civic activities or cope with harmful experiences.…”

“…Distinguished through analyses of skewness and kurtosis, confirmatory factor analysis, difficulty estimation and equivalence testing, and validated through cognitive interviews and pilot surveys, the four dimensions are defined in Table 1. Each dimension encompasses functional subskills and digital knowledge (or critical literacy), and all are important for wellbeing in a digital society (Helsper et al, 2021;Mascheroni et al, 2020).…”

Digital Skills and Digital Knowledge as Buffers Against Online Mis/Disinformation? Findings from a Survey Study Among Young People in Europe

“…It is also possible that associations between digital skills or digital knowledge and young people's mis/ disinformation risk experiences are canceling each other out due to opposing regression coefficients for different profiles of young people based on their internet use. As noted by Haddon et al (2020) and Mascheroni et al (2020), various factors relating to personal characteristics, the social context, and the ICT environment are antecedents of young people's internet uses and their digital skills. The association between digital skills and digital knowledge and online risks relating to mis/disinformation may look different based on these antecedents, which may also be mediators in this relationship, and opposing forces may be canceling each other out, resulting in weak regression coefficients.…”

Evaluación de la competencia digital del alumnado de Educación Primaria

“…En el caso del alumnado de Educación Primaria se requieren aún más estudios que entiendan esta competencia como "el conjunto de una competencia tecnológica más allá de su frecuencia de uso" (Martínez Serrano, 2018, p.36). En este sentido, Martínez-Piñeiro et al ( 2019), Sciacca et al (2021), Savic (2022) aluden, además, a la falta de estudios que consideren las variables sociodemográficas como elemento influyente en la adquisición y dominio de la CD en esta etapa escolar, pues se están generando ciertos desequilibrios en la adquisición de esta competencia en función de los diferentes entornos sociales y familiares del alumnado (Fraga-Varela y Rodríguez-Groba, 2019; Hernández y Iglesias, 2020, Haddon et al, 2020;Mascheroni et al, 2022).…”