Digital citizenship is rapidly becoming a priority for formal and non-formal education institutions (Hennig, Vargas & Duque, 2019), in addition to being an emerging field of study in educational research. Education plays an important role developing skills to answer with future, and current, economic, cultural, and social demands. Educating youth to get involved and become an active part of the social and politics dialogue to change the existing and growing exclusions and inequalities in society is paramount. The promotion of social injustice and developing active citizens can be defined as a process through which people develop their abilities, skills and knowledge in order to get involved in their social environment, participate in it and develop recognition links with others from anywhere in the world (Ramírez Iñigue, 2016). Some authors (e.g. Hintz, Dencik & Wahl-Jorgensen, 2017) interpret Digital Citizenship as the enactment of a person’s role in society via the use of digital technologies. Similar studies (e.g. Henning, Vargas & Duque, 2019; Cantabrana, Minguell and Tedesco, 2015) also refer to the necessary skills to be developed by people to participate and engage in digital citizenship (Sanabria & Cepeda, 2016).

From a European perspective, Digital Citizenship Education constitutes the ability to engage competently and positively with digital technologies; as well as, participating actively and responsibly in communities at all levels (Richardson & Milovidov, 2019). Therefore, framing digital citizenship education, requires a deep political and pedagogical reflection on what do we understand citizenship to be and how does it materialize into actions; but also, on how digital technologies and virtual or hybrid environments are shaping the conceptualization of citizenship and what key competence are influential in this process.

This paper presents an on-going study that is part of a doctoral thesis that aims to identify and understand the relationship between youth participation in social and political spheres and digital and socio-civic skills development in two cases: Spain and the United Kingdom.

This study uses an exploratory design that measures the development of digital and socio-civic skills, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data via an online questionnaire. Considering the previous research objective, the following hypotheses were set: • H1: People who participate in political and social organisations will have a higher level of digital skills than the rest of the participatory profiles. • H2: People who participate in political and social organisations will have a higher level of socio-civic skills than the rest of the participatory profiles. The participants of the study were selected using non-probabilistic convenience sampling by contacting educational centres, universities and national youth organisations and councils. During the participant selection process, informed consent was obtained from all respondents. The study sample for the UK case study consists of 124 participants and the Spanish sample of 534 respondents. The quantitative data collected with the DIGISOC questionnaire (Peart et al., 2020) was analysed using SPSS (v.26). Before statistically contrasting the hypothesis, the appropriate calculations were carried out to decide whether to use a parametric or non-parametric statistical tests. These tests were used to contrast the normal distribution, homoscedasticity, and randomness of the data series. Due to the nature of the variables and the contrasted models, non-parametric tests were applied (Cubo, Marín & Ramos, 2011). The qualitative data collected through the open-ended questions of the same instrument and then a content analysis was conducted to codify participant’s answers with Qualitative Data Analysis Software ATLAS.ti.

The results provide information on digital and socio-civic skills development and we address how they can influence levels of social and political engagement. The descriptive and inferencial analysis shows significant differences between those young people who actively participate in social and political organizations in regard to other types of participation and even, those who do not participate, and digital and socio-civic skills. The findings indicate that people who participate in political and social organizations have greater skills regarding the treatment and use of information and data compared to people who do not participate in political and social organizations. However, there are major differences into the perception and development of citizenship activities and skills from young people in the UK in comparison with their European counterparts of Spain (Peart, Cubo-Delgado & Gutiérrez Esteban, 2022). The perception of citizenship activities in the UK, follow traditional conceptualizations, whereas in the Spanish context, the results show a more holistic and digital outlook to civic actions and citizenship education. The data points towards the need of a broader understanding of citizenship and key competence development in the European context. However, in the case of the UK, the data highlights certain risks for young people falling short of gaining a deeper scope of political engagement and citizenship, especially if national policy diverges further after Brexit. The results can guide European and UK stakeholders and policymakers to shape the skills development of youth and provide insights into how young people are participating throughout Europe and how digital skills development may help or hinder citizenship.

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