The Impact of Digitalisation on Slovenian Primary School Students in Eighth Grade
Article Category: Original Scientific Article
Data publikacji: 25 lut 2022
Zakres stron: 174 - 180
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rsc-2021-0017
Słowa kluczowe
© 2022 Mirna Macur, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Digitalisation is a strategic priority of European Union (EU) development. A European approach to digital transformation means empowering and including every citizen, strengthening the potential of every business, and meeting global challenges with our core values (EC 2020). Slovenia showed its readiness to follow this path by appointing Minister without Portfolio for Digital Transformation Mark Boris Adrijanič in July 2021. Nevertheless, the Covid-19 pandemic brought about a huge digital transformation in the everyday lives of adults and children: Internet use became much more prevalent. There are huge benefits in Internet use, but extensive Internet use can be harmful too. This article explores the impact of digitalisation on primary school children in the eighth grade before the Covid-19 pandemic and describes problematic Internet users.
The Internet is an integral part of our everyday life; it brings many benefits: it helps us get information faster, it connects us to the rest of the world, it enables qucker and more transparent business processes, and much more, but it also brings negative consequences to some people who use it extensively. Internet use has been increasing worldwide: the number of Internet users has increased tenfold from 1999 to 2013, with the first billion users being reached in 2005 and the third billion in 2014 (ILS 2020a). Internet users (individuals who can access the Internet at home, via any device type and connection) distribution in the world is: Asia (53.4%), followed by Europe (14.3%), and Africa (11.5%). On the other hand, Internet access (penetration rate) is the highest in North America (90.3%), followed by Europe (87.2%), with Asia (58.8%) and Africa (42.2%) on the bottom of the list of regions (
Internet use in Slovenia followed the same growth trend: statistics reveal that in 2000 only 15% of the people in Slovenia had access to the Internet, but in 2016, already 72% of Slovenians were Internet users (ILS 2020b). The Internet is most often used for searching information about goods and services, for reading online news, newspapers, or magazines, followed by social networking (46% of Slovenians aged 16–74 in 2017 participated in social networks, e.g., Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, or in professional networks, e.g., LinkedIn); 39% used Internet banking, 37% telephoned or conducted video calls via webcam over the Internet, and 26% used storage space on the Internet to save private documents, e.g., pictures, music, video, or other files (in the cloud). Internet usage remains the lowest among the older generation in Slovenia (Republic of Slovenia, Statistical Office 2017).
Wide applicability of Internet use leads to excessive use by a minority of individuals, which affects their everyday lives in terms of neglecting important relationships (family, friends) and important tasks (school- or work-related). Already 25 years ago, Internet Addiction (IA) was mentioned as a serious problem by a few excessive Internet users. In 1995, Kimberly Young established the Centre for Internet Addiction (Net Addiction) and published her first book on Internet addiction in 1998 (Young 1998). In Europe, the roots of research into IA began with the publication of Griffiths’ (1995) paper on “technological addictions” that prompted publications on both IA and specific online addictions such as Internet gambling addiction. In addition to the work of Young and Griffiths, the first empirical studies started to appear, including prevalence surveys with self-selected samples, case studies, explorations of psychosocial and psychiatric correlates of IA, and psychometric validation of instruments assessing IA (Griffiths et al., 2016).
Internet addiction or problematic Internet use has been widely researched in many countries, including Slovenia. National studies on IA started with Jeriček's (2001) study on IA among high school students of the third year in Ljubljana (n=1194). She adapted Young's questionnaire (i.e., the Internet Addiction Test) and found 3.7% of problematic Internet users among Ljubljana's high school students. Šimek et al. (2004) discovered 1.8% of problematic Internet users among Maribor's high school students (n=662). The first representative study on problematic Internet use was conducted in 2014 by the National Institute of Public Health (Macur et al. 2016): 3.1% of Slovenians aged 18–95 years (n=6262) were found to be problematic Internet users, with a higher share of problematic Internet users among the younger generation. A representative study among Slovenian high school students (Macur and Pontes 2018) showed 18.5% of problematic Internet users, who tend to be more passive in their free time, since they watch TV and play video games more than their peers, as well as chat on social media. Adolescents presenting high risk of IA displayed poorer levels of self-control in most cases and reported to be generally less satisfied with their lives in comparison to other adolescents.
The goal of this paper is to investigate problematic Internet users in a representative sample of Slovenian primary school students in the eighth grade in terms of free-time activities, parent-child relationships, self-control, and self-assessed mental health and satisfaction with life.
The present study was part of the Slovenian project “Healthy lifestyle of children and youth through the empowerment of youth workers and the establishment of programs on a local level,” which was supported by Norway Grants
There are nine grades of primary school in Slovenia. Children enter into the primary school at the age of 6;a cohort of children born in the same year enter the same class together. The field study took place in April–May 2015, so students in the eighth grade should have turned 14 that year. Most of them (87.7%) were born in 2001; at the time of the field study their average age was 13.43 (SD=0.59).
Sample structure
| GENDER | male | 484 | 49.0 |
| female | 504 | 51.0 | |
| REGION | Pomurska | 56 | 56 |
| Podravska | 151 | 151 | |
| Koroška | 38 | 38 | |
| Savinjska | 131 | 131 | |
| Zasavska | 27 | 27 | |
| Spodnjeposavska | 39 | 39 | |
| Jugovzhodna | 54 | 54 | |
| Osrednjeslovenska | 253 | 253 | |
| Gorenjska | 109 | 109 | |
| Notranjska | 24 | 24 | |
| Goriška | 60 | 60 | |
| Obalno-kraška | 46 | 46 |
Frequency of Internet use was measured by asking participants about their time spent on the Internet for leisure purposes on weekdays (Monday to Friday) and weekends (Saturdays and Sundays). Severity of Internet use was measured with the Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire short form (PIUQ-SF-6) (Demetrovics et al. 2008, Koronczai et al. 2011; Demetrovics et al. 2016). This research instrument has already been used in Hungarian sample of adolescents (Koronczai et al. 2011; Demetrovics et al., 2016) as well as adults (Demetrovics et al. 2008; Koronczai et al. 2011). PIUQ-SF-6 was also used in a Slovenian nationally representative adult sample (Macur et al. 2016; Macur 2017) and a representative adolescent sample of Slovenian final year high school students (Macur and Pontes 2018). A study on a representative sample of Slovenian adolescents in the eighth grade of primary school is presented in this article, which used the same PIUQ-SF-6 questionnaire. The PIUQ assesses three dimensions of problematic Internet use (i.e., obsession, neglect, and control disorder) each measured by two items. The six PIUQ items can be responded on a 5-point Likert scale (from ‘
Self-control was measured by seven items reflecting the tendency of low self-control (Cho 2010; Rand, Stein, and Rand 1998):
I wholeheartedly take part in exciting things even if I have to take an examination tomorrow. I abandon a task once it becomes hard and laborious. I am apt to enjoy risky activities. I enjoy teasing and harassing other people. I feel like I am a ticking time bomb. I lose my temper whenever I get angry. I habitually don’t do my homework.
Responses were measured on a Likert scale from 1 (
Participants were asked about their free-time activities (spending time with friends, watching television, playing video games, using online social networking sites, reading books, musical activities, and doing sports) on a 5-point Likert scale (1:
The parent-child relationship was determined by a four items describing the affection between respondents and their parents. The scale comprised the following statements on shared activities and emotional closeness based on previous research using the same data (Kim and Kim 2015; Cho, 2010; Kong and Lim 2012):
My parents and I try to spend much time together. My parents always treat me with love and affection. My parents and I have frequent conversations. My parents and I understand each other well.
Responses were based on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (
Perceived life-satisfaction was measured by a single question asking participants to rate on a scale ranging from 1 (
The study identified 23.2% (n=230) of Slovenian eighth graders as problematic Internet users, labeled “at risk” and not being able to control the time spent on the Internet. This percentage is backed up with another representative Slovenian study that used the same measure (Macur et al. 2016) and showed that the percentage of problematic Internet users rises with age: in age group 18+, there were 3.1% of problematic Internet users; however, in age group 20–24 years, there were 11% of problematic Internet users; in age group 18–19 years, their share was 14.6% (Macur et al. 2016).
There were no gender differences in problematic Internet use in our sample. There was, however, a difference in time spent on the Internet for personal purposes: problematic Internet users on the average spent 3.9 hours on the Internet from Monday to Friday and 4.4 hours on Saturdays and Sundays. Their peers, i.e., nonproblematic Internet users, on the average spent 2.5 hours on the Internet from Monday to Friday and 3 hours on Saturdays and Sundays.
Comparison of at risk and nonproblematic Internet users concerning free-time activities (Table 2) shows that problematic Internet users spend their free time in front of a screen much more than their peers: they watch TV more (t = −3.34;
Free-time activities of at-risk and nonproblematic Internet users
| 3.83 (0.920) | 3.87 (1.065) | −0.493 | 350.066 | 0.622 | |
| 3.03 (0.964) | 3.29 (1.032) | −3.340 | 373.791 | 0.001 | |
| 2.86 (1.132) | 3.35 (1.313) | −4.970 | 347.245 | 0.000 | |
| 3.05 (1.252) | 3.85 (1.29) | −8.112 | 841 | 0.000 | |
| 2.45 (1.184) | 2.25 (1.167) | 2.148 | 834 | 0.032 | |
| 1.90 (1.469) | 1.86 (1.457) | 0.329 | 842 | 0.742 | |
| 3.82 (1.165) | 3.55 (1.328) | 2.637 | 354.496 | 0.009 | |
An important solution to unhealthy Internet habits of children and teenagers is for parents to spend time in conversation and to spend time together with children in types of activities that do not involve screens. Understandably, students at risk describe the relationship with their parents as less favorable than nonproblematic Internet users. There is a statistically significant difference between the two groups of students in all four dimensions: students at risk spend less time with their parents (t = 4.518;
Parent-child relationship of at risk and nonproblematic Internet students
| 3.88 (1.001) | 3.50 (1.064) | 4.518 | 353.092 | 0.000 | |
| 3.67 (1.147) | 3.39 (1.183) | 3.049 | 820 | 0.002 | |
| 4.07 (0.987) | 3.76 (1.099) | 3.682 | 340.700 | 0.000 | |
| 4.25 (0.955) | 3.94 (1.125) | 3.575 | 325.613 | 0.000 | |
Problematic Internet use has been linked to depression and mental illnesses (Guo et al. 2020). Our study showed that self-assessment of mental health was significantly lower for students at risk (mean = 3.35
Self-assessment scale: from 1 (bad) to 5 (excellent) Self-assessment scale: from 1 (completely dissatisfied) to 10 (completely satisfied)
Problematic Internet users show attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (Wang et al. 2017). In our study, self-control (Kim and Kim 2015) of the students was measured. In Table 4, nonproblematic Internet users were compared to students at risk, who showed a lower level of self-control in all seven dimensions: they wholeheartedly take part in exciting things even if they have an examination the following day (t = 2.588;
Self-control of at risk and nonproblematic Internet users
| 2.89 (1.224) | 2.64 (1.179) | 2.588 | 819 | 0.010 | |
| 3.39 (1.155) | 2.85 (1.188) | 5.845 | 815 | 0.000 | |
| 3.00 (1.269) | 2.67 (1.295) | 3.239 | 814 | 0.001 | |
| 3.95 (1.263) | 3.58 (1.376) | 3.493 | 347.483 | 0.001 | |
| 3.87 (1.276) | 3.27 (1.370) | 5.532 | 352.498 | 0.000 | |
| 3.31 (1.260) | 2.59 (1.327) | 7.070 | 817 | 0.000 | |
| 3.71 (1.337) | 3.25 (1.365) | 4.370 | 816 | 0.000 | |
Digitalisation in schools in Slovenia has been very intense in the last couple of years. In 2020, online lectures became obligatory in primary and secondary schools because of the lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Adolescents soon adapted to the digitalised school system; however, the long lockdown showed its side effect: too much screen time negatively influenced the mental health of youth (Radulović 2021).
Our study was taken before the pandemic, and a quarter (26.5%) of primary school children in the eighth grade were found to be at risk of developing negative effects of too much Internet use. Problematic Internet users showed:
- lower assessment of their mental health; - lower life satisfaction; - engagement in different free-time activities than their peers: they played video games and engaged in social media more; they also watched more TV, participated in fewer sports activities, and read less than nonproblematic Internet users; - a less favorable relationship with their parents; and - significantly lower levels of self-control than nonproblematic Internet users.
The Covid-19 pandemic pushed forward many new digital solutions. Online teaching and learning became everyday practice. Internet use by children and adolescents grew, as did mental health problems of the young. Recent developments show that too much screen time is not a solution, but a problem; therefore, another lockdown of schools is not planned in the future. Our research shows that one of the best prevention mechanisms against problematic Internet use is quality time with their parents. Nevertheless, more help (therapies, counseling, youth centers, NGO activities, etc.) should be offered to young problematic Internet users.