Parental Socioeconomic Status and Digital Academic Engagement of University Students in AJK, Pakistan

Abstract

The research question is the ways in which socioeconomic status of parents affects access of and utilization of digital academic services by the university students and their satisfaction with the services and challenges they face in the institutions of higher learning in Azar Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Pakistan. This work is the result of increased importance of the digital tools in the academic use as well as the overall trend of the digital divide which seems to be correlated with socioeconomic differences. A sample size of 124 university students was picked and the structured questionnaire was carried to them, chosen of various backgrounds. It gathered socio-demographic variables, SES variables (parents education level, occupation, and household income), and digitization access variables (ownership of devices, availability of internet, frequency of use, and number of hours of use per day) and variables of satisfaction (perceived effectiveness, effects of performance, and availability).

The initial descriptive statistics was that students who belonged to higher SES families possessed their own personal devices, had good access to internet, and used the digital resources more often than those belonging to lower SES-groups. Chi-square test and ANOVA tests revealed that the digital satisfaction and internet access were dependent on income and education. Lastly, the level of SES groups experienced a higher number of barriers such as financial and lack of connectivity, as well as institutional support that added to the structural discrimination of digital access. The results indicate that this should be done through policy formulation, the institutional investments in infrastructures and developing insights in digital literacy so that the accrued benefits of the entire population can be equally obtained by all and inclusive in accessing to digital educational materials.