Digital competence among young people in Spain: A gender divide analysis

Estanyol, Elisenda, Montaña, Mireia, Fernández-de-Castro, Pedro and Aranda, Daniel Digital competence among young people in Spain: A gender divide analysis. Comunicar, 2023, vol. 31, n. 74, pp. 113-123. [Journal article (Paginated)]

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English abstract

Datafication in today’s communicative ecosystem poses a challenge to media and digital literacy, especially with regard to young people’s participation and civic and democratic engagement. We address this issue using the notion of digital citizenship, in order to study the gender digital divide as it relates to competence (i.e., skills and knowledge) and the possibility of leveraging said competence to promote civic education grounded in gender equality in the digital environment. For this study, we surveyed a representative sample of 600 young people between the ages of 16 and 18 in Spain to gauge their digital competence through three variables: technical skills, informational skills and critical knowledge. We then performed a descriptive analysis resulting in percentages, means and standard deviations and a bivariate analysis using significance testing (T-tests) between the above variables and the gender variable. Results show a relative balance between men and women in technical and informational digital skills, albeit tipped slightly in favour of women. By contrast, men claim to have more critical knowledge. Based on these results, we discuss the need to consider the contributions of feminist theories in the field of technology to develop proposals for teaching digital competence that encourage active digital citizenship based on gender equality.

Spanish abstract

El escenario de dataficación del ecosistema comunicativo actual plantea un desafío a la alfabetización mediática y digital, especialmente en lo que respecta a la participación y el compromiso cívico y democrático de la población joven. En este artículo abordamos esta cuestión a partir de la noción de ciudadanía digital con el objetivo de estudiar la brecha digital de género en términos de capacidades ?competencias y conocimientos? y la posibilidad de aprovecharlas para promover una educación cívica fundamentada en la igualdad de género en el entorno digital. Para ello, mediante una encuesta con una muestra representativa de 600 personas jóvenes ?entre 16 y 18 años? en España, observamos su nivel de competencias digitales a través de tres variables: competencias técnicas, competencias informacionales y conocimientos críticos. Los resultados del análisis descriptivo, mediante porcentajes, medias y desviaciones típicas; y bivariado entre dichas variables y la variable de género mediante pruebas T-test de significatividad, muestran que, si bien hay relativa igualdad de condiciones entre hombres y mujeres en cuanto a competencias digitales técnicas e informacionales con un ligero dominio de las mujeres, los hombres afirman tener más conocimientos críticos. Desde ahí, discutimos la necesidad de considerar los aportes de las teorías feministas en el ámbito tecnológico para elaborar propuestas educativas en competencias digitales que fomenten desde la igualdad de género la promoción de una ciudadanía digital activa.

Item type: Journal article (Paginated)
Keywords: Digital citizenship; citizenship education; media literacy; critical thinking; gender equality; young people; Ciudadanía digital; educación ciudadana; competencia mediática; pensamiento crítico; igualdad de género; jóvenes
Subjects: B. Information use and sociology of information > BJ. Communication
G. Industry, profession and education.
G. Industry, profession and education. > GH. Education.
Depositing user: Alex Ruiz
Date deposited: 09 Jan 2023 06:22
Last modified: 09 Jan 2023 06:22
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/43884

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