Fostering Children’s Digital Skills Development for Safer and Positive Use of Digital Technology and Social Emotional Well-being through the Application of Innovative Educational Technologies

This thesis aimed to contribute to research on the promotion of children’s safe and positive use of digital technologies (DT) and ultimately their wellbeing through the development of digital skills. The literature showed a scarcity of research with preadolescents and a need for both a better conceptualisation of DT use and the identification of digital skills dimensions related to positive use. Moreover, studies on digital skills training programmes for children were scarce and further evidence was needed to inform best education and social policies, in particular in the participant countries, Ireland and Italy. To address these gaps, this thesis had four aims: (1) to clarify the concept of digital technology use and its relation to preadolescents wellbeing (2) to investigate if and what dimensions of digital skills are related to safe and positive use of (3) to develop and test an innovative educational programme to foster children’s digital skills for safer and positive use of DT (4) to devise best educational practices and recommendations for policy. Four studies were conducted in two countries, the Republic of Ireland and Italy, using a mixed-methods design and a child-centred perspective. The partnership with an Irish charity concerned with Internet safety, CyberSafeKids (CSK) was core to the research project implementation. Overall, 866 preadolescents (aged 10-11) were recruited in 15 schools across the two countries. Results showed that: (1) The literature focussed on children’s negative use of DT, mostly referring to ‘addictive use’, or negative experiences; also, the complex bidirectional relationship between DT use and wellbeing was highlighted, emphasising the role of interpersonal issues and negative emotions as main factors related to use and impacting on wellbeing. (2) Information and communication digital skills were core to preadolescents’ safer and positive use of DT; (3) The innovative digital skills e-learning programme – developed in collaboration with CSK – was an engaging and effective educational tool to foster children’s digital skills, easily scalable in primary schools. (4) Preadolescents’ views on improving current education and social practice and policies both in Italy and Ireland concern the need for better regulations on access to platforms, which should be suited for their age, and the involvement of schools, families and the media industry to tackle the problem. Italian preadolescents underscored both the risk of engaging in potentially harmful behaviours and the need to have the critical skills to avoid them. Overall, findings across the four studies demonstrate the complexity of DT positive use and the possibility of fostering preadolescents’ information and communication skills through education intervention and better regulations. In this vein, children claimed the need for ‘adults’ to collaborate to allow them to benefit from DT use positively and safely. Implications for theory, methodology, educational practices and policy are discussed.

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