Participant Information Letter – Adult participants aged 18-25 years based in Ireland
Dear Participant,
I am Sandra Flynn, a PhD student of E-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning at Lancaster University. I would like to invite you to take part in a research project with the working title: Bridging the age-based digital divide: an intergenerational exchange during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown period in Ireland.
Please take time to read the following information carefully before you decide whether or not you wish to take part.
What is the study about?
There are two research questions to this study that your responses will help address:
RQ1 – How successful did young people consider their efforts to support their senior cohort family members with digital communications?
RQ2 – What did young people themselves learn from this intergenerational exchange experience?
Why have I been invited?
You have been invited since as a young person between the age of 18 and 25 you may have unique insights into the research topic.
What am I being asked to do?
You are requested to complete a short survey for high level insights as to the experience from your perspective. The timeframe for completion will be between late-September and mid-October.
It is completely up to each individual to decide whether or not to take part. Your participation is entirely voluntary.
The survey consists of questions with Likert scales and dropdown values to select from, with some optional comments to support the qualitative nature of this study of intergenerational learning. The survey should take no longer than 10 minutes of your time.
What if I change my mind?
If you change your mind, you are free to withdraw at any time up to the point of clicking on the survey ‘submit’ button.
What are the possible disadvantages and risks of taking part?
No disadvantages and risks of taking part in this study have been identified in this small-scale study.
Will my participant data be identifiable?
Any survey responses will automatically be anonymised and so neither the participant nor their data will be identifiable.
Recorded survey data from Qualtrics and recorded interview data using Microsoft Teams will be stored in password-protected files on the University network using Microsoft OneDrive. No other party than the researcher will have access to this data. No hard copies will be used in this project since data will be managed digitally. In accordance with University guidelines, we will keep the data securely stored for a minimum of ten years.
How will the information shared be used and what will happen to the results of the research study?
The data will only be used for research purposes. The final paper will be available early in 2021, when a copy will be made available to you on request.
When writing up the findings from this study, I may wish to reproduce some of the views and ideas shared with me in the optional comments to the open-ended survey questions and/or the interviews. When doing so, I will only use anonymised quotes so that, although I will use your exact words, you cannot be identified in any report or publication.
In the future, there may be opportunity to include the results in an academic journal or at an academic conference.
What if I have a question or concern?
If you have any queries or if you are unhappy with anything that happens concerning your participation in the study, please contact: Sandra Flynn by email at s.flynn2@lancaster.ac.uk
If you have any concerns or complaints that you wish to discuss with a person who is not directly involved in the research, you can contact the supervisor of this study: Professor Don Passey (d.passey@lancaster.ac.uk)
| This study has been reviewed and approved by Professor Don Passey on behalf of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Lancaster Management School’s Research Ethics Committee. |
Thank you for considering your participation in this project. To provide consent and continue to the survey please select the following link: Survey of 18-25 year olds
Featured image courtesy of Pixabay
Sandra Flynn 
With an amazing response from more than 460 young people it is time to close the survey and get the data storytelling underway. The abstract will be posted here in January 2021 and the final paper will be available on request.
Many, many thanks to all who supported this study by sharing and special thanks to all the young people who kindly took the time to share your experiences.
Kind regards,
Sandra
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Abstract
This research set out to explore the contributions of young people to the development of their senior cohort family members’ digital communication skills, during the period of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in Ireland in the spring of 2020. A survey was completed by 442 young people in the age range 18-25 years in response to two research questions: how successful their efforts were and what they learned from the intergenerational experience. This study contributes to bridging a gap in the literature by exploring the support young people provided in the development of digital skills of older family members from the perspective of the young people themselves.
The study found no association between the age range of older adults and their digital communication skills, thus no evidence offered to support the age-based digital divide in the title of this work. Young adults who supported their older family members considered the experience to be successful in 90% of cases with a key outcome being the prevention of isolation and loneliness by senior cohort family members living alone. Many young people reported learning the need for patience during the experience and the realisation that their generation takes technology for granted. The research concluded that government and training agencies in receipt of funding in Ireland need to improve their efforts to promote digital literacy amongst older adults beyond 10 hours of classroom training; and that intrafamilial learning should be formally supported by government and agencies in suitable programmes of intergenerational learning.
Keywords: Digital communications, digital literacy, digital skills, ICT, intergenerational learning, older adults, young adults.
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