Literacia digital em jovens: diferenças por sexo, curso e ano letivo

The digital literacy of young people, as an essential skill for life in society in the 21st century, has the potential to contribute to their employability and, consequently, to the economic growth of society. This study aims to analyse the level of digital literacy of young Portuguese, considering the differences according to gender, secondary education courses and school year. The sample consists of 311, 10th grade students (n = 185, 59.5% girls), ages between 14 and 20 years (M age = 15.44, SD age = .81), attending scientifichumanistic courses (n = 191, 61.4%) and professional courses (n = 120, 38.6%) from schools in the northwest of Portugal. Data were collected in the 2020-21 (n = 165, 63.1%) and 2021-22 (n = 146, 46.9%) school years. Responses to the critical skill, informational skill and communication skill subscales of the Digital Literacy Scale were analysed. The results of exploratory factor analyses guided the decision for a two-factor solution, explaining 54.31% of the variance, with good internal consistency, with Cronbach alpha coefficients of .85 and .68 in the critical and informational skills subscales, respectively, after excluding the items of the communication skill subscale. The results of the bifactor ANOVAs showed the main effects of gender and secondary education course on perceptions of critical skill. The importance of considering the level of digital literacy when using digital media and technologies as career assessment tools is highlighted.