Abstract:

In the last decades, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have developed and expanded massively all over the world. This new digital revolution has completely changed people's lives, becoming a new irreversible reality. Adults have not been the only ones affected by this new context, but especially young people, and increasingly at younger ages. It is in the last years of Primary Education (PE) when young people begin to make greater use of ICTs as they own a personal device. At these ages, if the use of these devices is not responsible and/or supervised, problematic behaviors or digital addiction may appear. Thus, the lack of self-control seems to play a potential risk on digital addiction and other problematic addictive behaviors. Taking this into account, the present study analyzes the use that pre-adolescents make of electronic devices with screens and its relationship with self-control. A total of 166 students from 5th and 6th grades of Primary Education from the province of Biscay (north of Spain) participated in the study. The study followed a cross-sectional design. The participants answered the EUPI (Escala de Uso Problemático de Internet en Adolescentes) questionnaire. To measure their self-control the subscale of Reward Delay of CACIA (Cuestionario de Auto-Control Infantil y Adolescente) instrument was used. A significant correlation between problematic use of ICT and Internet and reward delay capacity was found. Statistically significant differences were found in the problematic use of ICT and Internet between students who showed a higher and lower reward delay capacity. In this sense, students who indicated an appropriate use of electronic devices with screens showed a higher level of self-control compared to students who made problematic use of these devices, who showed the lowest values of self-control. This study highlights the importance of self-control at this stage of life to make a good use of new technologies. Educational implications of these results are relevant, as they highpoint the importance of training our ability to postpone gratification, in a society where immediacy seems to be a priority.

Keywords:

ICT, Primary Education, digital addiction, Internet addition, reward delay.