Poster #142 - Stability and change in digital technology use: A longitudinal study of primary school students

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

A large body of research has examined the relation between digital technology use and digital literacy, but few studies have used longitudinal designs and examined the relation between these two variables as children mature. This study leveraged data from the Learning and Assessment for Digital Citizenship project to examine the associations between patterns of digital technology use at home and digital literacy in young children. Participants included 180 children (91 boys and 89 girls) from 10 schools in Hong Kong. Participants completed a survey on their use of digital devices and a performance-based assessment of their digital literacy in Primary 3 in 2018 and again in Primary 5 in 2020. The repeated measures latent profile analysis (RMLPA) yielded the following four profiles for digital technology use: (i) consistently light use; (ii) consistently moderate use; (iii) decreasing use (high to moderate); and (iv) increasing use (high to heavy). The child’s gender and family socioeconomic status contributed to the prediction of the profile group membership. There was a gradient relation between digital technology use and digital literacy. Counterintuitively, children with consistently light use had significantly higher digital literacy than those in the consistently moderate use and decreasing use (high to moderate) groups, who in turn, had significantly higher digital literacy than those in the increasing use (high to heavy) group. The implications of the findings are discussed.

Authors

• Laure Lu Chen, University of Cambridge
  Presenting Author

• Nirmala Rao, The University of Hong Kong (HKU)