Digital Inclusion And Perceived Social Support of Rural Women In The Online Social Networks
Author(s):
Maria Angeles Rebollo (presenting / submitting) Olga Buzon (presenting)
Rafael García-Pérez (presenting)

Rosario Rodríguez (presenting)
Conference:
ECER 2013
Format:
Poster

Session Information

06 SES 05.5 PS, General Poster Session

General Poster Session

Time:
2013-09-11
12:30-14:00
Room:
FUAYE
Chair:

Contribution

Background: Many studies have showed that social inequalities continue being when people have access to Internet. At the present time, it seems necessary to study the inequalities that Internet can generate among people who already have access to it (Castaño et al., 2012). this second gender gap (Hargittai, 2002) and / or digital divide (Dimaggio et al., 2004), which refers to the skills and intended use (Dimaggio et al., 2004; Selwyn, 2010; van Dijk, 2005; Warschauer, 2008) appears to be influenced by variables such as age, gender, education level, socioeconomic status or geographic location (Bonfadelli, 2002; Hargittai, 2010; Hargittai y Hinnant, 2008; van Dijk, 2006; Warschauer, 2008; Zillien y Hargittai, 2009). Many studies have shown gender differences in the uses and relationships of people with technologies (Wasserman & Richmond-Abbott, 2005; Hilbert, 2011), however web 2.0 and, especially, social networking has changed the presence and participation of women in virtual environments. Some studies reveal that social networking activities related to maintaining contact with friends and family are led mainly by women (Clipson, Wilson y DuFrene, 2010; Caldevilla, 2010; Junco, Merson y Salter, 2010). Although some previous studies have analyzed online social relationships as potential sources of social support and its relationship to psychological well-being (Fuente, Herrero y Gracia, 2010; Herrero y Gracia, 2007), few have focused on studying the impact of perceived social support in digital immersion of women in online social networks. In this paper we study how perceived social support influences the digital inclusion of women in rural areas in online social networks. Specifically, we hypothesized that the type of perceived social support influences the level of digital inclusion of women in social networks.

Aims:  1)To know the level of digital immersion of rural women in Andalusia (Spain); 2) To study the differences in the level of rural women's digital immersion in accordance with the age and educational level; 3) To analyze a predictive model between perceived social support and digital immersion.

Method

We have surveyed 478 women from rural areas of Andalusia (Southern Spain) aged between 18 and 65 years (mean age 36.89). We applied a stratified sampling by quotas, considering the age and educational level. Most women surveyed live in families, have a secondary education or university and have paid employment. The questionnaire used includes: a) Sociodemographic and studies with questions about age, marital status, number of children, employment status studies; b) Digital Immersion Scale consists of 21 items with a range of response from 0 (none) to 4 (completely) and, 3) Perceived Social Support Scale composed of 12 items measuring emotional support, instrumental and relational perceive women in their social network with a response range from 0 (none) to 4 (completely). We applied descriptive analysis techniques and ANOVAs with the SPSS / PC + (version 18 for Windows) and we conducted a structural equation model with smartpls version 2.0) to test a predictive model between perceived social support and digital inclusion of women in online social networks.

Expected Outcomes

The results show that rural women of Andalusia do not reach the level of digital inclusion, although the average score is close to this level with a value of 37.27 on a scale of 0-84. This shows that women reach a level of accessibility to resources but they do not yet have habits and routines using online social networks. Statistically significant differences were observed in the digital immersion level in function of age, but not according to the level of education. Women less than 25 years are those that have higher level of immersion, followed by women aged between 26 and 39 years. These data show the deep generation gap that persists in rural women in terms of digital inclusion in social networks. Finally, the results show that perceived social support is a significant predictor of digital immersion level of rural women, being the emotional support that has more weight in the predictive model.

References

Castaño, J., Duart, J.M. y Sancho, T. (2012). Una segunda brecha digital entre el alumnado universitario. Cultura y Educación, 24(3), 363-377. Clipson, T.W., Wilson, S.A. & DuFrene, D.D. (2010). The Social Networking Arena: Battle of the Sexes Business Communication Quarterly 75(1), 64–67. Fuente, A., Herrero, J. y Gracia, E. (2010). Internet y apoyo social: sociabilidad online y ajuste psicosocial en la sociedad de la información. Acción psicológica, 7(1), 9-15. Hargittai, E. (2010). Digital Na(t)ives? Variation in Internet Skills and Uses among Members of the «Net Generation». Sociological Inquiry, 80 (1), 92-113. Herrero, J. y Gracia, E. (2007). Measuring perceived community support: factorial structure, longitudinal invariance, and predictive validity of the pcsq (perceived community support questionnaire). Journal of Community Psychology, 35(2), 197–217. Hilbert, M. (2011). Digital gender divide or technologically empowered women in developing countries? A typical case of lies, damned lies, and statistics. Women's Studies International Forum, 34(6), 479–489 Van Dijk, J. (2005). The deepening divide: inequality in the information society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Pub. Wasserman, I. M., & Richmond-Abbott, M. (2005). Gender and the Internet: Causes of variation in access, level, and scope of use. Social Science Quarterly, 86(1), 252–270.

Author Information

Maria Angeles Rebollo (presenting / submitting)
University of Seville, Spain
Olga Buzon (presenting)
University of Seville, Spain
Rafael García-Pérez (presenting)
University of Seville, Spain
Rosario Rodríguez (presenting)
University of Seville, Spain

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