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About this paper symposium
| Panel information |
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| Panel 24. Technology, Media & Child Development |
| Paper #1 | |
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| Longstanding identity development processes account for differential associations between adolescents’ social media use and well-being | |
| Author information | Role |
| Dr. Tyler John Colasante, Ph.D., Humboldt Science Center for Child Development (HumanKind), Leipzig University, Germany | Presenting author |
| Naama Appel-Doron, Constantiner School of Education, Tel Aviv University, Israel | Non-presenting author |
| Tina Malti, Humboldt Science Center for Child Development (HumanKind), Leipzig University; Centre for Child Development, Mental Health, and Policy, University of Toronto Mississauga, Germany; Canada | Non-presenting author |
| Ella Daniel, Constantiner School of Education, Tel Aviv University, Israel | Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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Adolescence has long been regarded as the most critical period of identity development (Erikson, 1968). Adolescents generally engage in focused, in-depth exploration that strengthens their identity, or in a disorganized search that leads to reconsideration of existing values (Meeus, 2011). Recently, social media has become an inseparable part of adolescents’ lives. Social media platforms offer unprecedented space to express and explore one’s self-concept and values. The prolific rise of social media use among adolescents was initially met with fear of negative consequences for their well-being (Heffer et al., 2018), but current research clearly suggests that social media confers both risks and benefits depending on individual and contextual factors (Colasante et al., 2022). Could the identity development processes employed by youth on social media partially explain the mixed effects of social media use on well-being? Despite the confluences of adolescence, identity development, and social media, no studies have sought to answer this question. We investigated the roles of two major identity development processes — in-depth identity exploration and identity reconsideration — in explaining the link between adolescents’ social media use and well-being. Guided by the identity development literature and current mixed findings on the outcomes of adolescents’ social media use, our hypotheses were: Higher social media use will be indirectly associated with a) higher well-being through the identity strengthening process of in-depth exploration and b) lower well-being through the identity fragmenting process of reconsideration. Method: 305 adolescents (Mage = 14.58 years; 54% female) participated alongside their caregivers. Adolescents reported their social media use frequency (viewing, posting, liking, and responding) on current social networking sites (Boer, 2022) and their identity development processes (U-MICS; Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008). Adolescents/caregivers reported their own/adolescent’s well-being in the social and academic domains (Shetu, 2018). We had no pre-conceived ideas of informant- or domain-related differences, so we derived a single multi-informant indicator of adolescent well-being using principal component analysis. All measures were previously validated and internally consistent in this sample. Results: As per Figure 1, social media use was positively associated with both identity development processes; however, in-depth identity exploration was associated with higher adolescent well-being, whereas identity reconsideration was associated with lower well-being. Neither indirect effect straddled zero, suggesting that the two processes significantly accounted for opposite associations between adolescents’ social media use and well-being. Implications: Whether social media-based identity exploration translates into better or worse well-being for adolescents may depend on the exploration type: the strengthening process of in-depth exploration was associated with higher well-being, whereas the disorganized process of identity reconsideration corresponded with lower well-being. Although the arena for identity development is now digital with algorithmically induced, fast-moving trends and instant (dis)approval from a wide audience, the underlying processes of identity development and associated outcomes for adolescent well-being may be the same we would expect from theorizing and studies well before the digital era (see Hollenstein & Colasante, 2020). Identity development processes should be further explored as mechanisms underlying the negative and positive outcomes of social media for today’s youth. |
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| Paper #2 | |
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| The Role of LGBT+ Identity in the Relationship Between Social Media Use and Adolescent Well-Being | |
| Author information | Role |
| Dr. Y. Anthony Chen, Ph. D., United States, University of California, Irvine | Presenting author |
| Amanda Ferguson, University of Cambridge, England | Non-presenting author |
| Ethan McCormick, University of Delaware, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Candice Odgers, University of California, Irvine, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Amy Orben, University of Cambridge, England | Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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Adolescent mental health has been declining globally (Castelpietra et al., 2022), while digital technology use, particularly social media, has increased (Ofcom, 2022), raising concerns about its impact on well-being. Research has shown both positive and negative effects of social media on well-being, but these effects are often small, bidirectional, and vary by age and gender (Orben & Przybylski, 2019; Orben et al., 2022). However, little is known about how this relationship unfolds for LGBT+ adolescents, who tend to spend more time online and face distinct risks and benefits online (e.g., Berger et al., 2022). This study aimed to fill that gap by addressing two research questions: RQ1: Do the bidirectional associations between social media use and well-being differ between LGBT+ and non-LGBT+ adolescents, and if yes, how? RQ2: When accounting for natural within-person fluctuations over time, do these associations persist? To address these questions, we used data from the Understanding Society dataset, a longitudinal annual survey of UK households. Our final sample included 3,907 adolescents (19% identifying as LGBT+), who reported their overall satisfaction with life (a proxy for well-being) and their screen time spent on social media during weekdays, annually between 2012 and 2022. We conducted separate analyses for younger adolescents (10-15) and older adolescents (16-21), because LGBT+ identity was only reported when participants were 16 years or older. Younger adolescents were retraced using participant IDs to identify those who later identified as LGBT+. In line with our pre-registration, we employed multi-group Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models (see Figure 1). This approach allows us to examine both between-person differences and within-person changes over time and whether these associations vary by identity (RQ1). As shown in Figure 2, we found significant bidirectional associations among younger adolescents: lower life satisfaction predicted higher social media use at later ages, and vice versa, particularly for LGBT+ adolescents aged 13-15. Non-LGBT+ adolescents showed a similar pattern, with the significant associations emerging between ages 13-14. However, among older adolescents, no significant reciprocal associations were observed, regardless of LGBT+ identity. To explore RQ2, we added random slopes to account for the within-person fluctuations in social media use and life satisfaction over time, rather than assuming that these variables remained stable across time. After adjusting for these fluctuations, the significant reciprocal associations found among younger adolescents disappeared. Also, no significant identity differences were found. Again, there were no significant reciprocal associations or identity differences for older adolescents in this adjusted model. This suggests that the previously observed relationships may have been driven by individual variability in social media use and well-being, rather than a stable, directional relationship. Overall, our findings suggest that the relationship between social media use and well-being is more complex than previously assumed. For adolescents, the associations appear to be driven by within-person variability rather than a stable causal relationship. As adolescents age, these associations weaken further. These results underscore the need for more nuanced, dynamic models like RI-CLPM to capture the complexities of adolescent development, particularly for vulnerable groups such as LGBT+ adolescents. |
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| Paper #3 | |
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| Adolescent Emotion Regulation Through Digital Means Across the Pandemic: Trajectories and Links to Well-being | |
| Author information | Role |
| Katie Faulkner, MSc., Queen's University, Canada | Presenting author |
| Xiaomei Li, Queen's University, Canada | Non-presenting author |
| Jessica Lougheed, University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus, Canada | Non-presenting author |
| Tom Hollenstein, Queen's University, Canada | Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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The development of emotion regulation skills during adolescence is a key predictor of long-term well-being (De France & Hollenstein, 2017). Digital technologies have extended the means through which individuals can achieve emotional change, often termed Digital Emotion Regulation (DER; Wadley et al., 2022). DER can be further understood by considering the social motivations behind it, distinguishing between intra-personal DER (INTRA-DER), where individuals independently use digital devices to manage emotions (e.g., playing a videogame by oneself to distract from negative feelings), and inter-personal DER (INTER-DER), which involves seeking social support via digital communication (e.g., texting a friend when distressed; Faulkner et al., 2024). Adolescents, with their heightened emotionality and frequent use of digital technologies, may be particularly inclined to rely on digital tools for emotion regulation. This tendency likely intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time characterized by heightened stress, increasing the need to regulate, as well as isolation, contributing to a greater reliance on digital technologies overall. Indeed, our previous research found that adolescents significantly increased their use of both INTRA-DER and INTER-DER from before to during the first year of the pandemic, and these changes corresponded with increases in stress (Faulkner et al., 2024). However, it is unclear whether these changes were sustained and what lasting impacts these digital behaviours have had on adolescent development and well-being. Therefore, we examined (1) how adolescent INTRA-DER and INTER-DER changed from the year before the pandemic through the subsequent three years, and (2) whether these changes predicted adolescent well-being outcomes at the end of the 4 years, while accounting for co-occurring changes in stress. We used questionnaire data from the longitudinal Second Decade Study (ages 12-13 at Time 1, N = 179, 43% girls, 77.7% White). Time 1 data were collected between October 2019 and March 2020 with annual follow-ups (Times 2-4). At each time point, adolescents reported through questionnaires how often they relied on INTRA-DER and INTER-DER (Faulkner et al., 2024), as well as their stress levels (Cohen et al., 1983). At Time 4, they also provided measures of well-being from the EPOCH survey: Engagement, Perseverance, Optimism, Connectedness, and Happiness (Kern et al., 2015). Latent growth curve modeling revealed that both INTRA-DER and INTER-DER increased from Time 1 following a quadratic trajectory, while stress followed a linear trajectory (Figure 1). However, slope variance for both INTRA-DER and INTER-DER was nonsignificant, indicating uniform change across participants, so subsequent models focused solely on the intercepts. In Model 1, INTRA-DER was positively associated with higher Engagement (Figure 2) by late adolescence. In Model 2, INTER-DER was positively associated with greater Perseverance, Optimism, Connectedness, and Happiness by late adolescence (Figure 2). These findings offer a counterpoint to the dominant narrative that digital technologies have primarily negative effects on youth development. Instead, results illustrate that digital platforms may enhance well-being by offering adolescents immediate ways to process emotions, seek comfort, and maintain social connection, especially when offline avenues are limited. Future studies should examine whether these findings apply beyond the context of the pandemic. |
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Pathways to Adolescent Well-being: The Role of Digital Experiences in Identity and Emotion Regulation Development
Submission Type
Paper Symposium
Description
| Session Title | Pathways to Adolescent Well-being: The Role of Digital Experiences in Identity and Emotion Regulation Development |