THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: COMPUTER USE, BASIC SKILLS AND EMPLOYMENT

6 RESEARCH SUMMARY

Interpretation

In both Portland and London there appears to be a
positive effect of employment and ICT use on
subsequent literacy proficiency. In the Portland
case, employment has a stronger effect than ICT
and in the London case the reverse is true. Thus,
the primary difference between the London and the
Portland models appears to be in the effect of
employment on literacy proficiency. In the Portland
case, employment appeared to continue to strongly
influence the development of literacy proficiency. In
London the relationship between employment and
literacy proficiency was much weaker.

3. Elaborated London model

The next step in the analysis was to elaborate the
London model further, taking advantage of the
larger sample size. Two extensions were evaluated:
the first comprised testing the comparative model
separately for men and women; the second
comprised adding in another divide - occupational
status - alongside the other three-divide measures
of literacy proficiency, ICT use and time spent in
employment.

Men and women separately

Findings

There were notable differences in the pattern of
relationships within the men’s and the women’s
models. For men, the strongest relationships were
between ICT use in 2000 and literacy proficiency in
2004, and between amount of employment in 2000
and literacy proficiency in 2004. All the other
relationships were relatively weak. For women,
although the relationship between ICT use in 2000
and literacy proficiency in 2004 was replicated, it
was accompanied by an effect of amount of
employment in 2000 on ICT use in 2004.

Interpretation

For women, employment appears to provide a
means of access to ICT, which in turn positively
effects literacy proficiency over time. In contrast,
for men there appeared to be little gain from
employment in enhancing ICT competence that
could then translate into enhanced literacy
proficiency.

Effect of occupational status

Findings

Occupational status in 2000, as might be expected,
predicted literacy proficiency, ICT use and the
amount of time spent in employment in 2004.
However, in this case the effects were two-way
(reciprocal), with the rise in ICT use and amount of
employment in 2000 also predicting rise in
occupational status in 2004.

Interpretation

The two-way reciprocal effects between the three
divide measures were stronger for women than for
men. This may be because the return to work after
child rearing can involve moving up a gear in all
areas of competence in order to catch up. In
contrast, for men, use of ICT appears to be more
about occupational progress than getting back into
the labour market per se. For both men and
women, ICT use in 2000 continues to predict
increased literacy proficiency in 2004. ICT in 2000
also predicts occupational status in 2004, as does
time spent in employment.

Accordingly, we reinforce our conclusion that the
relationships between ICT and time spent in
employment across time are different for men and
women. In the case of men, computer use connects
with higher status occupations, which themselves
probably support literacy proficiency improvement.
For women, many of whom are returning to the
labour market after child rearing, the key route to
literacy proficiency is through employment which
gives access to computer use. Computer use then
provides the means of raising literacy proficiency
levels.

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