Internet Use and Resilience in Adolescents: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this systematic review is to examine ways a resilience framework might inform social workers’ understanding about how to mitigate risks for youth who use Internet and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Eligibility criteria: This review identified original research published between January 2006 and December 2019 that used a resilience framework to assess outcomes of youth, ages 10–19, who use ICTs. Methods of synthesis: A narrative synthesis grouped articles based on conceptualizations of resilience, risk, and protection; methods; and populations. Results: A search identified 13 peer-reviewed studies that used resilience and its relationship to outcomes. Most studies identified resilience as a mediator or moderator that buffers the effect of harm. Conclusions: Social workers who wish to mitigate risks for youth who use ICTs might focus on interventions that strengthen resilience. Currently, resilience is inconsistently conceptually defined, and more robust research is needed regarding ICT use by marginalized youth.

Children’s, parents’ and educators’ understandings and experiences of digital resilience: A systematic review and meta-ethnography

“…In this article, we build on recent work in this area (Hammond et al, 2023b; Kostyrka-Allchorne et al, 2023; Mascheroni et al, 2020; Sage et al, 2021; Stavropoulos et al, 2022; Vissenberg et al, 2022) by undertaking a meta-ethnography to provide robust evidence about children’s, parents’, educators’ and civil society actors’ experiences and understandings of digital resilience. In so doing, we employ a socio-ecological understanding of digital resilience, as provided by Hammond et al (2023b), to enable the current article to map existing literature against each level of digital resilience (i.e.…”

“…In considering learning how to navigate the Internet as an increasingly important developmental task, the need of moving debates forward from binary notions of risk or resilience when considering 'using connective technologies' (Hammond et al, 2024) is an important one. If there can be no digital resilience without online risk, and no risky online experiences without digital resilience (Sage et al, 2021;Sun et al, 2022;Vissenberg et al, 2022), the role of home, community and society in supporting digital resilience development by balancing opportunities for pre-teens to learn needs to reconsider. This is explored further in our line-of-argument synthesis (step 7).…”

“…bullying) and contract (e.g. blackmail) – and to learn how to thrive in connective spaces – is digital resilience (Livingstone and Stoilova, 2021; Sage et al, 2021; Vissenberg et al, 2022). Digital resilience is here defined as: ‘.…”

Family Matters More Than Friends on Problematic Social Media Use Among Adolescents: Mediating Roles of Resilience and Loneliness

“…People with high levels of resilience are typically characterized by optimism, engaging the support of others, realistic sense of control, and tolerance of negative affect, which can drive them successfully to withstand psychological disturbance (Connor & Davidson, 2003;Lutha & Cicchetti, 2000). For instance, adolescents with higher levels of resilience were especially less likely to engage into problem behaviors, such as tobacco and substance misuse (Goldstein et al, 2013;Weiland et al, 2012), as well as problematic or excessive Internet-related activities (Canale et al, 2019;Navarro et al, 2018;Sage et al, 2021). Regarding social media use, Hou et al (2017) found that resilience was negatively associated with problematic social networking site usage among adolescents.…”

Rebellious youth and ineffective advice: A study of Vietnamese adolescents’ capability to deal with digital threats

“…Building digital resilience is imperative for safeguarding the youth from digital threats while still keeping them employing the utilities of the digital environment (26). Despite the importance, most studies about Internet use and resilience focus on its mediator or moderator role in buffering the effects of Internet harms (26). Few studies examine the factors improving children's and adolescents' digital resilience.…”