Online activities can provide a wide range of opportunities for young people in dealing with age-related transitions and developmental tasks, such as forming their identity. This study aimed to unravel the associations between adolescent identity formation and online activities, internet skills, and risks. Using a nationally representative sample of Lithuanian adolescents (N = 549, mean age 15.5 years, 46.6% girls), we examined how adolescents, who were classified into distinct identity statuses (achievement, early closure, moratorium, searching moratorium, and diffusion) across two identity domains central to the adolescent experience (educational and interpersonal identity), differ in their pattern of online activities, skills, and risks. The findings highlighted that adolescents in the achievement and searching moratorium statuses could be characterized by a richness of online experiences. Those in the searching moratorium status also had the lowest level of online risks. In contrast, those in the moratorium and diffusion statuses showed lower diversity and richness of online activities. Adolescents in the diffusion status group also had low internet skills. Adolescents in the early closure group showed a mixed profile of online activities.

We investigated the longitudinal links between parental teaching of reading and spelling and children’s word reading and spelling skills. Data of 244 Lithuanian parent–child dyads were analyzed, who were followed across three time points: end of kindergarten (T1;M_age= 6.88; 116 girls), beginning of Grade 1 (T2), and end of Grade 1 (T3). The children’s word reading and spelling skills were tested, and the parents answered questionnaires on the frequency with which they taught their children reading and spelling. Overall, the results showed that the parents were responsive to their children’s skill levels across the domains of reading and spelling and across time (i.e., the transition from kindergarten to Grade 1 and across Grade 1). However, differences between the domains of reading and spelling were also observed. In particular, in the domain of reading and across the transition from kindergarten to Grade 1, the parents responded to their children’s skill levels by increasing the time spent teaching children with poor word reading skills, and decreasing the teaching time for the children with good word reading skills. In contrast, as spelling skills may require more time to develop, parents maintained similar frequencies of teaching spelling across the transition to Grade 1 for all children, and only parents of good spellers taught less spelling at the end of Grade 1 than parents of children with poor and average word spelling skills.

The shift in the parent-child relationship during the transition to adulthood presumes that emerging adults progress toward financial self-sufficiency. Research indicates that financial parenting contributes to success in this transition, and these effects extend beyond the financial domain. Nevertheless, there is a lack of theory-based tools to measure relevant financial parenting aspects. By applying the six dimensions of interpersonal behaviors outlined in the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the current study develops a scale targeting the interpersonal style of financial parenting. To validate the scale, it also tests seven preregistered hypotheses predicting internal structure and associations with relevant external variables in a sample of 600 emerging adults (M_age =24.94, SD_age = 3.03, range 19–29 years; 52.3% women). The sample, diverse occupational status characteristics, was recruited from an online survey panel using the controlled quota sampling strategy. While study results provide modest evidence for a hypothesized six-factor structure and advocate instead for a more parsimonious two-dimensional one, results provide evidence for the new scale’s convergent, discriminant, criterion, and incremental validity. This is the first study that brings SDT into family financial socialization research and opens a new line of research on family financial socialization, achievement of financial self-sufficiency, and emerging adults’ wellbeing.

The accessibility of the internet and the availability of online services in Lithuania are steadily increasing; the demand for some services is almost twice the EU average and is growing every year. In the context of Europe, Lithuania is among the countries with high internet use, which increases the risk and threat to children through the internet. In a study conducted by the EU Kids Online II in 2010, it was found that Lithuanian children lack the skills of safe use of internet, while parents lack the knowledge and ability to ensure the safe use of internet by their children. The purpose of this article is to identify how children’s threats and the involvement of parents in ensuring the safe use of internet by their children are changing as the access to information technology and the internet grows. During a survey conducted in 2018, 1 012 children aged 9 to 17 years and one of each of their parents were interviewed. These data were compared to the data from 2010 survey, when 1 004 online users aged 9 to 16 years and one of each of their parents were interviewed. The results revealed that in 2018, children and their parents spend more time on the internet. Children spend 4–5 hours on the internet every day and it is approximately one hour longer than in 2010. Children use a variety of devices to connect to the internet and use the internet to perform various activities, especially the sharing of pictures, watching videos and playing games on the internet, and more often use social networks sites. The most popular social network is Facebook. In the current year, children are less likely to share their personal information, communicate less with strangers, but children experience more abusive behavior from others online and have more access to sexual content in 2018 than in previous years. Parents report less negative experience and technical threats, such as the use of a child’s personal information or device infection with a virus, regarding their children spending their time on the internet. The data suggests that parents nowadays seldom are in the same room with the child while he/she is on the internet, but parents talk with children on safety issues, encourage them and are interested in their activities on the internet more often than in previous years.

Publisher: Vilnius University Institute of Data Science and Digital Technologies, Journal: Informatics in Education, Title: Centralised Mathematics Assessments of Lithuanian Secondary School Students - Population Analysis, Authors: Audronė JAKAITIENĖ, Rimantas ŽELVYS, Jogaila VAITEKAITIS, Saulė RAIŽIENĖ, Rita DUKYNAITĖ , We focus on two types of centralised national examinations (the 10th grade tests and Matura examination) that are being carried out in Lithuania for two decades. The aim of the paper is to analyse assessments of mathematics for the entire Lithuanian secondary school population that have no sampling errors while considering the factors of location, school ownership and gender as important indicators when judging about educational effectiveness in terms of quality and equity. We analyse the results of the 10th grade tests for the 2011–2015 period and the results of the same cohorts participating in the Matura examination. We observe that the distribution of the assessments of both exams is asymmetric with a positive skew. The median often is below the middle of the grade scale indicating poor performance or mismatch between knowledge and examination tasks. There are limited differences in assessments with respect to gender and school location, although we detect a tendency to have better mathematics achievement in private schools. The conclusions drawn from national assessment data is somewhat different from international data thus one cannot neglect national information for the development of educational policy. The variables analysed in the analysis has limited predictive power for achievements in mathematics and further analysis is called-for.

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