Graduation Term

2024

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Department of Psychology

Committee Chair

Laura Finan

Committee Member

Alycia Hund

Abstract

Children take many factors into consideration when deciding to trust an informant, several of which are applicable to the internet as well. No research has been dedicated to studying whether children’s understanding of the internet’s social complexity (capacity to affect society in both good and bad ways) affects the amount of trust they place in the internet. Child participants (N = 97) ages 5 to 11 years were recruited to examine the relationship between age, time spent online, internet use, and trust in the internet, as well as the influence of social complexity understanding on the relationship between age and trust in the internet. Participants were interviewed about their internet experience (Girouard-Hallam et al., 2023), understanding of the internet’s social complexity (Yan, 2006), and their trust in the internet (Eskela-Haapanen & Kiili, 2019). Interview transcripts were coded by trained research assistants using methods adapted from Yan (2006), and regression analyses found a significant negative relationship between children’s age and their reported trust in the internet. Additionally, social complexity understanding, while being a significant negative predictor of trust, had no moderating influence on the relationship between age and trust in the internet. These findings have implications for the future operationalization of trust in the internet and the teaching of digital citizenship to children.

Access Type

Thesis-Open Access

DOI

https://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2024.20240827063557121226.999983

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