Background
Today’s youth grow up in technology-saturated conditions that can contribute to identity exploration and social connection, as well sedentary behavior, unhealthy adiposity, poor sleep quality, and risk to cardiometabolic health. The project begins with secondary analysis of multi-year and weekend daily diary intensive longitudinal datasets that include proxies for family communication and self-reported sleep health. Results will guide mixed-methods formative research on the family socialization processes that shape adolescents’ digital media engagement and physical health.
Problem
Adolescents’ interactions with the digital environment do not exist in isolation; they are shaped by multiple ecological contexts, including individual, relational, familial, community, and cultural influences. Grounded in bioecological theory, the family constitutes a primary and immediate context that drives human development. Through frequent and routine interactions with family members, youth develop their social skills, internalize values and attitudes, and learn behaviors that guide their engagement in both offline and online domains. Empirical research indicates that household rules about youth technology ownership and use as well as parental discipline and parenting self-efficacy are critical in shaping adolescents’ media health literacy, functionality, and ability to navigate the digital world effectively. Understanding how family communication processes influence youth’s digital media engagement and physical health is therefore critical for informing effective prevention efforts, family guidance, and public health interventions.
Goals
Using the newly developed family mediation scale, this project examines how family mediation and other interpersonal processes are associated with youth’s digital media engagement and health outcomes, such as physical activities, sleep hygiene/deficiency, and obesity. In doing so, the current project addresses broader calls within the life sciences to integrate insights from the digital environment and social science with human biophysical health, highlighting the critical role of family socialization processes in fostering adolescent physical health and healthy development.
Progress
An update on progress towards these goals will be presented at the upcoming symposium From Households to Habitats on September 11.
