A novel digital competence assessment tool for parents: Development and validation study.
Yitong Jia1, Bojun Xu2, Yuxuan Li3
1Faculty of Nursing, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
Digital Health
|June 30, 2025
Summary
A new Parental Digital Competence Scale (PDCS) was developed to assess parents' digital skills for better child health. This valid and reliable tool helps identify gaps and promote safer digital family environments.
Area of Science:
- Child Health
- Digital Parenting
- Psychometrics
Background:
- Parental digital competence is crucial for effective parenting and child health in the digital age.
- Existing tools lack specificity for assessing digital skills within childcare.
- A novel Parental Digital Competence Scale (PDCS) was developed to address this gap.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a novel Parental Digital Competence Scale (PDCS).
- To provide a specific tool for assessing parental digital competence in childcare contexts.
Main Methods:
- Developed the PDCS through a four-phase process, including literature review, expert feedback, and pilot testing.
- Conducted psychometric validation with 477 family caregivers using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.
- Assessed construct validity, convergent/discriminant validity, and reliability (internal consistency, split-half, test-retest).
Main Results:
- The final PDCS includes 23 items across three dimensions: Digital Methods Application, Digital Security, and Information Retrieval and Evaluation.
- Exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factor structure explaining 80.499% of variance.
- Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a satisfactory fit for the second-order three-factor model; PDCS demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.981).
Conclusions:
- The PDCS is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring parental digital competence.
- The scale can identify parental digital competence gaps and track intervention effectiveness.
- It supports efforts to promote safer and more productive digital family environments.
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