The SES-based difference of adolescents’ digital skills and usages: An explanation from family cultural capital

Abstract

Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's framework of cultural capital, the study explored whether family cultural capital contributed to adolescents' digital inequality regarding both digital skills and usages of digital media and could further explain the relationship between social origins and youth's digital diversity. Cultural capital was operationalized as family cultural resources, cultural practices and media-related parenting activities (i.e., active and restrictive mediation). We tested the proposed hypotheses using data collected from 1119 middle school students in China. The results showed that cultural resources, cultural practices and active parental mediation were significant predictors of adolescents' general digital skill, creative skill and educational use of Internet, whereas leisure use of Internet was not explained by family cultural capital. The results also suggested a relatively complex pattern of relationships between restrictive parental mediation and different dimensions of digital inequality. The path analysis further revealed that cultural resources, cultural practices and active mediation were mechanisms underlying the effects of family SES on adolescents' digital practices. The role of family cultural capital in teenagers' digital practices was discussed in the context of media education.