IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v10y2021i6p192-d561914.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digital Proficiency and Psychological Well-Being in Online Learning: Experiences of First-Generation College Students and Their Peers

Author

Listed:
  • Xuefei (Nancy) Deng

    (Department of Information Systems and Operations Management, California State University Dominguez Hills, Carson, CA 90747, USA)

  • Zheng Yang

    (Department of Public Administration, California State University Dominguez Hills, Carson, CA 90747, USA)

Abstract

The study examines the role of digital proficiency in relation to psychological well-being of a vulnerable population—first-generation college students (FGS)—and their counterparts, continuing-education students, in online learning during the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Informed by positive computing and FGS studies, this paper empirically tests a model of three key influencing factors by using a data sample ( n = 309) collected from a minority-serving university in the U.S. in April 2020. Our data analysis confirms that FGS underperformed in digital proficiency, compared to their peers. Moreover, digital proficiency had a significant effect on individual psychological well-being, regardless of a student’s generational status. Our paper contributes to the positive computing research by empirically demonstrating the association between users’ technology competence and psychological well-being. Practically, our findings highlight the importance of implementing educational programs and policies to promote the digital skills and well-being of underserved students such as FGS in college education.

Suggested Citation

  • Xuefei (Nancy) Deng & Zheng Yang, 2021. "Digital Proficiency and Psychological Well-Being in Online Learning: Experiences of First-Generation College Students and Their Peers," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-16, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:10:y:2021:i:6:p:192-:d:561914
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/6/192/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/6/192/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:10:y:2021:i:6:p:192-:d:561914. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.