Digital media, including social media, has fundamentally changed how the human species communicates with, relates to, and influences one another. Adolescents use digital media extensively. Researchers, scholars, teachers, parents, and teens themselves have many questions about the effects of digital media on young people's psychological development. This handbook offers a comprehensive synthesis of scientific studies that explain what we know so far about digital media and its effects on youth mental health. With chapters from internationally renowned experts in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, media, and communications, the book offers a broad overview of the positive and negative implications of youths' engagement with digital media for brain development, relationships, identity exploration, daily behaviors, and psychological symptoms. Chapters include a discussion of the current state of knowledge, directions for future research, and practical suggestions for parents, educators, and teens themselves. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
‘Adolescence, which has always been a period of increasing vulnerability to the onset of mental health problems, has recently also become the period of life when young people enter new digital realms. The impacts of digital media on healthy adolescent development is therefore an issue about which families, educators, policy-makers, legislators, and digital designers are all seeking answers. However, public discussion of this issue often produces more heat than light. This volume brings together an impressive list of experts to provide an up-to-date summary of the theoretical models and research findings that can guide a new evidence-based understanding of these issues.’
Nicholas B. Allen - Ann Swindells Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Oregon, USA
‘This book provides one of the most comprehensive and up-to-date examinations on the complex relationships between social media use and mental health. In helping us to understand the nuanced ways in which social media affects different people in different ways, this excellent collection lays out much needed research on how to maximize the benefits of social media while reducing risks.’
Michael Robb - Senior Director of Research at Common Sense Media, USA
‘Digital media has been identified as both the cause and the cure for increasing rates of depression and anxiety among adolescents. Finally, with this volume a group of experts have come together to provide a balanced and evidence-based review of the risks and opportunities for our youth in digital spaces. This is a must read for anyone who cares about adolescents and the increasingly digital and complex world they are growing up in.’
Candice Odgers - Professor of Psychology and Informatics, University of California Irvine, USA
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