Supervisors: Marco Hubert & Marija Banovic
Discussants: Sascha Steinmann & Irene Pollach

Abstract
In recent years, the interest in determining what constitutes a beneficial use of information-and communication technologies (ICTs) has increased, especially with a focus on adolescents and their digital maturity. To design effective interventions for promoting a beneficial digital engagement among adolescents, it is crucial to understand what dimensions of digital maturity to target, nationally as well as internationally. Therefore, this paper sets out to determine the most important dimensions to target when it comes to adolescents’ usage of ICT across several countries. We follow up with a profiling of imperative segments based on socio-demographic characteristics. Data collected across multiple waves from 2021 to 2022 (N = 3262) from six European countries (AT, DE, GRE, SLO, DK, NOR) is explored and a machine learning approach is applied to propose the new instrument, ICT-Core (ICT-C), with 15 items covering the proposed dimensions.

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