Children, young people and digital inequality: The Influence of academic performance and family context

Abstract

The analysis of the emergence of ICT in the world of young people frequently offers uniform depictions of how the different contexts of their everyday life are changing. From an alternative perspective, we will show that not all children and young people appropriate technology in the same way or get the same benefit from it. Specifically, we will show how inequalities in such factors as academic performance and the conditions of young people’s home lives affect this different appropriation. Our analysis is based on the data obtained from two successive pieces of research, first in Catalonia and then in Spain, with two statistically representative samples of children and young people in primary and secondary education.

Julio Meneses

Full Professor

Professor de metodologia de la investigació, director d’Anàlisi de l’Aprenentatge i de la Docència de l’eLearning Innovation Center i investigador de l’Internet Interdisciplinary Institute de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.