Background. The ubiquity of ICTs, the decrease in the age at which digital devices began to be used, the sensitivity of the periods of preschool and primary school age, the extremely high importance of parental position regarding the use of digital devices by young children, with insufficient scientific development of this problem, necessitates obtaining and analyzing empirical data on the use of digital technologies in Russian families with preschool- and primary school- aged children.

Objective. Investigation of the ICTs usage in families with children of preschool (5-7 years old) and primary school (8-11 years old) age.

Design. The at-home study (N=100 parental-child dyads) consisted of a semi-structured interview for preschoolers and questionnaires for primary school aged children and parents of both age groups. It included questions about the level of user activity, digital initiation and culture, digital competency, parental mediation, online risks, psychological well-being and parent-child relationships .

Results. On weekdays, two-thirds (62-64%) of children aged 5–11 spend max. 1 hour on the Internet, and the rest of them spend max. 3 hours. On weekends, 48% of children of 5–11 years old spend online 1–3 hours, with 8% of preschool children and 18% of primary school children spending >3 hours. 5–7 aged children mostly use tablets, while 7–11 olders prefer smartphones. In both age groups, the leading form of digital activity is watching cartoons and videos. Children’s digital games evolve from interest in interacting with objects to preference for role-playing games. 7–1 aged kids begin to explore social networks, and use the Internet for study. 46% of 5–7 year children (46%), and 60% of 8–11 aged children have encountered online risks. Technical and content risks (pop-up banners and videos, frightening and pornographic content, viruses) prevail. 12% of primary school students encounter communication risks as well.

Most parents of preschoolers (70%) choose a strategy of being nearby their child using the Internet. In families with 8–11 aged children, adults are more tend to purposefully educate their child to use online technologies. A third of all adults surveyed admit to being insecure in the issue of online safety.

Background. Diagnostics of the schoolchildren digital competence is now an important educational task that requires an index applicable to children of the early school age and brief enough for population studies. The Digital Competence Index (DCI) as a component of social competence was proposed for measuring knowledge, skills, motivation and responsibility / security online in each of the following areas: content, communication, consumption, and technologicalsphere.

Objective. The development and subsequent verification of a brief and screening versions of DCI, and also the study of DCI in children under 12 years of age.

Design. During the first stage based on the first sample of DCI approbation, items with the highest correlation with each subscale were selected. Digital competence was assessed on the basis of the Index as well as the solution of experimental tasks. User activity was assessed using EU-Kids online methodology. During the second stage, the methodwas verified in the sample of children aged 7-11 and parents of children of primary school age. User activity was measured as well. The children also filled measure of Excessive Internet Use from EU-Kids online methodology and the Dembo-Rubinstein scales assessing their general and online self-esteem.

Sample. The first study included 1203 adolescents aged 12-17 and 1209 parents. The second sample included 50 children aged 7-11 years old and 100 parents of children aged 5-11 years.

Results. In the first study a brief version (32 points) allows to reliably (alpha 0.69-0.85) evaluate the four components and index ensuring the prediction accuracy of more than 90%. The screening version (16 points) makes it possible to reliably (0.71-0.73) estimate the overall index with the prediction accuracy of more than 85%. Both versions reproduced the basic patterns of the differences between correctly and incorrectly solved digital competence tasks by teenagers and parents. According to the second study, brief and screening versions can be used with the primary school age, although the screening version allows to estimate only the general index, but not the components of digital competence. The average digital competence of children 7-11 years old is 30% of the maximum possible, parents take 46%, which demonstrates the improvement of digital competence in the recent five years. Digital competence in both children and parents is associated with greater user activity, and in children – with a more positive self-esteem online and signs of excessive Internet use. In parents correct answers to the digital competence tasks were associated with greater competence, primarily on the components of responsibility/safety and skills.

Conclusion. The data support the possibility of using the screening version of the Digital Competence Index to obtain the general indicator in diagnosing adults and children of the primary school age, whereas a brief version of the DCI can be used not only as an overall index but also of its components.

The paper is an attempt to present a new approach to anxiety research, namely to describe social psychological determinants of anxiety in adolescents, and also to present teachers’, parents’ and students’ views on “anxiety-causing” situations in adolescents are compared.

The article presents a brief description of the main concepts related to the subject of anxiety: the interpretation of the phenomenon of anxiety, differences between the concepts of anxiety and fear, causes described by various authors. The author also pays attention to various types of anxiety: situational vs personal, adequate vs inadequate anxiety, anxiety in various fields of human life, and in particular at school.

The paper describes the results of the empirical study devoted to the communicative situations in which adolescents experience anxiety and the estimation of these situations by teachers and parents are presented.

The research is qualitative and consisted of several stages: focused interviews with teachers and then with the adolescents’ parents, focus groups of adolescents (the questionnaire is presented in respective part of the article). The study involved 6 teachers, 6 parents, 15 adolescents aged from 12 to 14 years. Based on the research results the set of situations that cause anxiety in adolescents is identified and the perception of these situations by parents and teachers is analyzed. The article also presents the similarities and differences of the perception of adolescents’ communicative anxiety in the three categories of respondents.

The results of the study show that the interactional situations causing anxiety among adolescents primarily involve social estimation of an adolescent both by peers and adults.