Access to computers and other digital devices has become a significant issue for contemporary societies. Beyond access, there is often an expectation for global citizens to demonstrate advanced skills in using these devices, as a means of increasing work productivity, streamlining everyday tasks, and capitalizing on the opportunities they afford in other development areas, such as education.
This plugged-in focus led to a specific research thread on digital access, use and skills in the fifth round of the Young Lives study household survey, conducted across the four study countries of Ethiopia, India (in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), Peru and Vietnam.
Young Lives is a longitudinal study of childhood poverty following the lives of 12,000 children over 15 years. The study follows two groups of children, a Younger Cohort born in 2001-02 and an Older Cohort born in 1994-95.
This week, Young Lives researchers and GRADE are marking the Latin American Evidence Festival (#SemanandelaEvidencia; #SE2017), a week-long series of events understanding promoting and celebrating evidence-based research and policy. In this blog, we present initial findings from this Young Lives research and explore what this means for policy and where further analysis must take us.
A digital divide?
A term often used to assess inequality in this field is digital divide. As a concept, digital divide has been defined as ‘the gap between people who do and do not have access to forms of information and communication technology’ 1 (van Dijk, 2017, p. 1). During the Round 5 survey, we sought to explore whether this divide played out in the experiences of Young Lives children. We asked participants from both cohorts whether they had used computers or laptops and, if so, how often.
Computer, laptop and Internet use
The first graph presents the percentage of children in the Younger (age 15 at time of the survey) and Older Cohorts (age 22) in each country who said that they had used computers ‘many times in their lives’. In Peru, the sample was randomly selected, excluding the 5% richest districts. In the other three countries, an intentional sample was selected with a pro-poor emphasis, seeking to reflect a variety of environments in each country.
Across the four countries, computer or laptop use differs greatly with highest use levels in Peru and Vietnam. In these two countries, there is also a smaller gap between cohorts, with higher use amongst the Younger Cohort, while in India and Ethiopia this pattern is inverted. This may be associated with patterns of labor in Ethiopia and India, while in Peru and Vietnam it seems that computers are more widely available, particularly in the school context.
We also asked participants about their frequency of Internet use and below is a graph showing the percentage of children who had used the Internet “many times”.
Interestingly, in all countries more participants in the Older Cohort reported having used the Internet than using computers or laptops. For the Younger Cohort, this is also the case in Vietnam.
A possible reason is that many children have access to Internet through mobiles phones. For example, in Vietnam, 72% of the Younger Cohort and 86% of the Older Cohort reported having used mobile phones with Internet access many times in their lives; higher than levels reported for using computers or laptops (Graph 1). There are previous reports of wide usage of mobile phones in Vietnam, where there are an estimated 1.45 mobile phones per person.
How old in a digital age?
For those who responded that they had used computers many times in their lives we also asked the age of first use of computers and this is what we found:
So, children in Peru and Vietnam not only have higher levels of access than children in Ethiopia and India, but their first point of access happens earlier in their lives. In Peru, this trend is likely related to government programs on technology for schools, which started early in the millennium and continued with a massive purchase of laptops under the One Laptop per Child program.
What does use look like?
Finally, we asked participants whether they could perform various computer and Internet-based tasks. The table below shows the percentage Older Cohort children who said they strongly agreed with the statements.
The data tell us that even among those who frequently use computers or the Internet, many cannot master basic tasks. Interestingly, the highest level of self-reported skills comes from India, which suggests that the persons who actually use computers in this country have a work or study routine that requires higher levels of mastery of computers and Internet than children in our other study countries. While self-report is a common method to measure digital skills, one limitation of is that it is a subjective assessment, with possible bias arising from social desirability in responses.
A true gap?
We have started analyses on the predictive factors of computer and Internet skills. For the Younger Cohort a gap is observed with digital children most likely to have shown a higher wealth index at age 1, be higher achievers in mathematics at age 8, and with more educated mothers. In regards to skills, again, early achievement in mathematics predicts higher skills, but also age of first use (the earlier they started, the higher the score) and daily use predict higher computer and internet skills. Gender (favoring males) is relevant for access to computer and internet, but only in India.
We are further exploring these findings, which we plan to publish in Young Lives´ technical document shortly. In this document, we will discuss options on how to bridge this gap to reach every last child, both digitally and otherwise.
- van Dijk, J. A. G. M. (2017). Digital divide: impact of Access. The International Encyclopedia of Media Effects (p. 1). Patrick Rossler (Editor). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.