Mobilizing Beneficial Coping Resources Online: The Role of Education, Digital Skills, and Capital-Enhancing Internet Use for Digital Inequality

• In Event: Digital Skills Divide

Abstract

Research on the digital divide points to inequalities with respect to digital skills and to differences in forms of Internet use that have the potential to enhance the users’ social, human, and financial capital. However, we do not know to what extent these inequalities translate into inequalities in outcomes of Internet use. Using a large scale sample of Dutch Internet users, we analyze educational inequalities in the successful mobilization of online coping resources after stressful life events, such as a loss of a job, serious health issues, psychological problems, and loss or death of a partner or family member. We find that some educational differences in successful mobilization of resources exist. These are to some, although limited, extent mediated by differences in digital skills and differences in spending time on capital-enhancing forms of Internet use, such as using discussion fora or utilizing social networking services. Stronger digital skills predict more time spent on capital-enhancing forms of Internet use which, in turn, predict mobilization of coping resources. The educational inequalities in mobilization of resources online are somewhat smaller than educational inequalities in offline mobilization of resources. The implications for further research on the digital divide and inequality are discussed.

Authors

• Erik van Ingen, Tilburg University

• Uwe Matzat, Eindhoven U of Technology