When Children Go Online: Exploring Digital Engagement Profiles and Socio-Emotional Competencies in Primary School

The increasing integration of digital technologies into children’s daily lives has highlighted the need to better understand early patterns of Internet use and their educational implications. This study aimed to identify profiles of Internet use among primary school children and examine their associations with socio-demographic characteristics and life skills. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 3977 Italian primary school students (mean age = 10 years). A person-centered cluster analysis was performed using indicators of Internet use across different times of day, problematic Internet use, and digital privacy behaviors. Four exploratory profiles emerged, differing mainly in the intensity and temporal organization of Internet use and in symptoms of problematic Internet use. All four profiles were highly reproducible across bootstrap resamples, although the three higher-use profiles overlapped considerably and should be interpreted as partially overlapping patterns rather than as sharply separated groups. Children with the highest levels of Internet engagement reported symptoms of problematic Internet use and lower self-efficacy, social awareness, emotion coping, decision-making, interpersonal skills, and problem-solving abilities. Gender differences were more pronounced than geographical differences, with boys more likely to belong to higher-use profiles. Digital privacy behaviors showed minimal variation across profiles. These findings highlight heterogeneity in children’s digital engagement and may inform the development and evaluation of school-based prevention approaches that integrate digital literacy with socio-emotional learning, while considering different patterns of Internet use rather than relying solely on overall screen exposure.