Connecting with technology in lower-income US families

Digital equity initiatives traditionally enable access to devices and Internet service, but increasingly, designers are also recognizing the importance of access to people and programs that support digital skills development. Families in under-served communities are most likely to need such supports but least likely to have them available. We explore the extent to which parents and children might serve as these sources of support for each other in low- and lower-middle-income families, who have seldom been the focus of research on children, families, and technology. We examine how sociodemographic factors and parents’ own technology use relate to patterns in how parents and children guide each other’s technology experiences. We then explore how siblings’ collaborative experiences are influenced by the extent to which inter-generational technology practices are either parent- or child-driven. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for strengthening digital equity initiatives targeting school-age children and their families.