Click to Care: A Pilot Study of Rural Middle School Digital Citizenship

Abstract

This pilot study evaluated the preliminary effectiveness of Click to Care, a school-based program focused on digital citizenship and online safety for adolescents in a rural school. Sixty students provided consent/assent and participated in the four 40-min lessons; 36 students completed both the pretest and posttest assessments and were included in the outcome analyses. A one-way repeated-measures MANOVA showed a statistically significant multivariate effect of time, Wilks’ Lambda = 0.71, F(4, 32) = 3.29, p = 0.02, partial η² = 0.29, d = 0.58. Follow-up univariate analyses indicated statistically significant gains in Data Privacy (F[1, 35] = 10.25, p = 0.003, partial η² = 0.23, d = 0.53) and Digital Trace (F[1, 35] = 4.61, p = 0.04, partial η² = 0.12, d = 0.34). Participants did not show significant gains in Social Media or Anti-Cyberbullying. Findings provide preliminary support for Click to Care and warrant replication with larger samples.