Summary

The ‘Digital Identity and Life-Course Study’ (DIALCS) has a long term vision to conduct an ambitious and innovative longitudinal, life-course study. The study intends to measure changes in attitudes and behaviours with Digital Identity (DI).

The SPRITE+-funded ‘Digital Identity and Life-Course Study (DIALCS) Phase 1’ project seeks to set the conceptual, theoretical and methodological foundations for a longitudinal life-course study focused on perceptions of, attitudes to, and behaviours with digital identity technology. This longitudinal study will repeatedly record data from a cohort of participants over a period of time to detect changes in the way they perceive and engage with digital identity technologies. No research has previously examined the adoption and engagement with digital identity technologies over the life-course. Generating such data would be essential not only to better understand citizens’ perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards digital identity, and how these change over time, but also to analyse the impact of emerging and future digital identity technologies in the way people perceive, feel and develop their ‘self’ identity in digital settings.

The research design of this project is structured in three stages. First, we undertook a rapid evidence assessment of studies on digital identity over the life-course. This was done to identify common themes in the literature, and most importantly, to highlight important gaps in research, which our study will aim to address. Second, we completed a conceptual mapping exercise aimed at linking the most common key terms in psycho-social theories of ‘self’ and digital identity IT frameworks. This second stage allowed us to identify key constructs that form the core of digital identity, both in psycho-social and technology frameworks. This project maps different theories of online presentation drawn from the domain of social psychology, to understand what they have in common with DI technological terminology including in various IT frameworks. The project team understands that currently developing DI standards either help or hinder self-expression, with the potential impact on aspects of their ‘self’, especially with respect to trust, privacy, and security over a person’s lifetime.

Finally, we ran a series of consultation meetings with domain experts in digital identity and longitudinal research methods. This was done to reach expert consensus on the conceptual, theoretical and methodological foundations for a longitudinal cohort study of digital identity over the life-course.

Objectives

The main objective of DIALCS Phase 1 was to set the conceptual, theoretical and methodological foundations for a longitudinal life-course study focused on perceptions of, attitudes to, and behaviours with digital identity technology. This overall objective was in turn divided in four main research questions that form the theoretical and methodological basis for the Phase 2:

(1) How do technological and psychological perspectives conceptualise digital self-identity?

(2) What are the factors that influence individuals to create and maintain a digital ‘self’ in cyberspace?

(3) How has existing research studied and measured life-course digital identity?

(4) What is the best methodology (including ethical considerations, design process, items, sample etc.) for a life-course study to measure the changes of online self in a secure and protected digital environment?

The DIALCS Phase 1 project is primarily structured in four core Work Packages (WP):

• WP1 involves the overall management and overseeing of the project;

• WP2 will map the social cognition psychological theoretical framework of online self to the technological frameworks that are being developed;

• WP3 will undertake a rapid evidence assessment of academic literature on the

  topic of DI over the life course; and

• WP4 will develop the methodological framework for Phase 2 of DIALCS.

We made positive progress during our project and no changes were needed to the above stated objectives.

Activities

The main activities were structured across four core Work Packages (WP).

WP1 included setting up the project agreements between partner organisations and the planning of the project delivery between project members. It also involved ensuring tasks are completed against the timeline, coordinating project members in co-contributing to the allocated work packages and organising bi-monthly project meetings.

WP2 involved the mapping of social cognition psychological theoretical framework of online self to the technological frameworks that are being developed. In this mapping exercise, we carried out a literature review for various self-theories on how they have been recently cited to discuss online and offline people’s identity and analysis of concepts of creating and presenting digital self for different purposes.

In WP3, we carried out a rapid academic literature review on the topic of DI over the life course and scoped out the existing research on digital identity.

WP4 included the development of the methodological framework comprising its research design, sampling approach, model of data collection, and design and validation processes.

We held four online consultations with a group of methodology experts to refine the

proposed methodological framework for DIALCS Phase 2.

Outputs

Conference Presentation:

Digital Identity and Life-Course Study (DIALCS): Phase 1. In SPRITE+ Conference,

Belfast, Northern Ireland. June 2023.

Journal Article:

Limniou, M., Lu, Y., Renwick, R., Buil-Gil, D., and Zeng, Y. Identity in the Digital Age:

An Analysis of Terminological Disparities in ‘Digital Self’ Theories and Digital

Identity Frameworks. (Article submitted for review to Cyberpsychology: Journal of

Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace).

Internal Report:

Buil-Gil, D., Zeng, Y., Lu, Y., Limniou, M., Lu, Y., and Renwick, R. (2023). Conceptual and Methodological Framework for a Digital Identity and Life-Course Study, October 2023.

Presentation at the SPRITE+ 2024 Showcase:

Impact

WP2:

The research design of this project is structured in three stages. First, we completed a conceptual mapping exercise aimed at linking the most common key terms in psycho-social theories of ‘self’ and digital identity IT frameworks. This stage allowed us to identify key constructs that form the core of digital identity, both in psycho-social and technology frameworks.

The main findings of the second phase of this project are that digital identity could be described by three main dimensions: 1.collective (relatedness, individuals’ normative style, interpersonal interactions), 2. capability (digital competence, sending and receiving messages through various digital media) and 3. enhanced (knowledge construction, and ideal or actual self) dimensions.

The findings of this stage have been submitted for a journal publication to the Cyberpsychology journal.

WP3&4:

Second, we undertook a rapid evidence assessment of studies on digital identity over the life-course. This was done to identify common themes in the literature, and most importantly, to highlight important gaps in research, which our study will aim to address.

Finally, we ran a series of consultation meetings with domain experts in digital identity and longitudinal research methods. This was done to reach expert consensus on the conceptual, theoretical and methodological foundations for a longitudinal cohort study of digital identity over the life-course.

After completing all of these, the following top-level recommendations were reached:

• The study should, where possible, enable descriptive analysis of key terms included in digital identity IT frameworks, government policies, and psycho-social theories of ‘self’.

• The study should follow a longitudinal life-course study design.

• The sample size should be large enough to enable population-level estimates, and anticipate common attrition issues. Participants will be recruited at the age of 10.

• The sampling approach should follow a stratified random sampling.

• The study should use a combination of computer-assisted telephone interviewing

• (CATI), computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI), and face-to-face

  interviewing.

• The questionnaire should have two parts: ‘general screening form’ and ‘digital

  identity form(s)’.

• The study should include measures of use of digital devices, digital access to various platforms, perceptions about digital identity technologies, digital literacy, parental control, experiences with digital technologies, and detailed follow-up questions about the various observed ‘digital identities’ of respondents.

Further work

We will share the resulting report ‘Conceptual and Methodological Framework for a Digital Identity and Life-Course Study’ with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and other relevant stakeholders, and organise a meeting to receive further feedback and study the feasibility of a DIALCS Phase 2 study.

We will seek funding to undertake DIALCS Phase 2 study, aimed at validating a questionnaire to measure perceptions of, attitudes to, and behaviours with digital identity technology over the life-course, and undertake a pilot study with 49 participants to assess the questionnaire and, where needed, validate new items.