As educators nationwide grapple with a digital divide that leaves millions of children who don’t have high-speed home internet access behind at school, a new survey suggests middle school students with limited tech exposure worry about their ability to compete in the future.

More than half of surveyed middle school students who say their schools lack new technology reported feeling stressed or even depressed about their ability to be successful, according to results of a new nationwide survey conducted on behalf of the Verizon Foundation, the philanthropic arm of telecommunications giant Verizon Communications.

What the research tells us is a lot of kids lack confidence in their ability to be successful in a tech-driven economy,” said Justina Nixon-Saintil, Verizon’s director for corporate social responsibility. “You have middle school students aged 11 to 13 who already understand that they’re in a situation where their school may not be providing everything they need. They know their schools are underresourced, and that actually causes them anxiety.”

Read the full article by Mark Keierleber about internet access from The 74