The Role of Digital Skills in the Formation Trust and Efficacy Among Latinos

This paper explores the relationship between digital skills acquisition and the development of efficacy and trust among Latinos in the United States. The findings suggest that information communication technologies (ICT’s) might provide a distinct pathway to efficacy and trust, both preconditions civic engagement, for historically marginalized groups in US society. We use ordinary least squares regression to test the proposition that proficiency in ICT use enhances trust and efficacy among Latinos. We find this to be the case for efficacy, but not trust. In addition, we find that digital skill is the only variable associated with trust for Latinos while multiple variables are related to trust for Anglo-Americans. In addition, we also find that digital skill is related to both trust and efficacy for African-Americans. We discuss the implications of this research for enhancing political trust and efficacy among historically marginalized groups in the United States.