DIGYMATEX - Understanding children's digital maturity

DIGYMATEX is an EU-funded project carried out by 12 partners from 10 countries to develop evidence-based tools to support the understanding and determination of children's digital maturity. This project has been funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant no. 87057.

The aim of DIGYMATEX is to develop evidence-based tools for researching and measuring children's digital maturity. These will provide insights into important processes of digital maturity and their influence on children's media use behaviour and long-term well-being. 

At the University of Vienna, we are primarily responsible for the creation of the evidence-based measurement tool, the Digital Maturity Inventory (Laaber et al., 2023). We contributed a core component of the project by conceptualizing, developing and validating digital maturity as a measure to capture young people’s use of digital devices.

The five-year project aims to provide clear insights into how the digital maturity of children aged 9 to 18 influences their behaviour, how they use information and communication technologies (ICT) and what long-term effects the use of these technologies has on children's well-being.

Digital technologies have a major impact on society as a whole, but until now it has been unclear what constitutes a meaningful and functional use of mobile devices and information technologies by children and adolescents. It is important to understand and recognise when children's use of digital technologies is a helpful tool and when it is harmful. The aim of DIGYMATEX is to provide concrete solutions that can contribute to a safer and more beneficial use of digital technologies by children and adolescents.

DIGYMATEX aims to develop innovative tools that can benefit children and parents, but can also be used by teachers and researchers. 

The project applies an interdisciplinary, multi-method approach by integrating and combining expertise, methods and knowledge from different research fields such as psychology, economics, sociology and neuroscience.

The DIGYMATEX consortium, funded by the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, consists of 12 partner organisations from leading universities, research institutions and technology companies in 10 countries, including Austria, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Norway, Greece, the Netherlands, Ireland, Israel and France.

 

More information about the this project can be found on the website, as well as its social media channels:

 

 

Read more about our research findings in the area of digital maturity and digital behavior

  • Kim, H. & Florack, A. (2021). When social interactions backfire: Frequent social interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic Is associated with decreased well-being and higher panic buying. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 668272. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.668272
  • Kim, H., Schlicht, R., & Florack, A. (2021). The contribution of social comparison to social network site addiction. PloS One, 16(10), Article e0257795. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257795
  • Koch, T., Laaber, F., Arenas, A., & Florack, A. (2025). Socially (disconnected) in a connceted world: The role of young people's digital maturity. Computers in Human Behavior, 163, 108473, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2024.108473
  • Koch, T., Laaber, F., & Florack, A. (2024). Socioeconomic status and young people's digital maturity: The role of parental mediation. Computers in Human Behavior, 154, 108157. doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2024.108157
  • Laaber, F., Florack, A., Koch, T., & Hubert, M. (2023). Digital Maturity: Development and Validation of the Digital Maturity Inventory (DIMI). Computers in Human Behavior, 143, 107709. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2023.107709
  • Laaber, F., Koch, T., Hubert, M., & Florack, A. (2023). Young people’s digital maturity relates to different forms of well-being through basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration. Computers in Human Behavior, 157, 108077. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2023.108077