Victimized in many ways: Online and offline bullying/harassment and perceived racial discrimination in diverse racial-ethnic minority adolescents.

Objectives: Racial-ethnic minority youth face multiple types of victimization associated with negative developmental outcomes. The present study examined the interplay of youth experiences of online and offline bullying/harassment and racial-ethnic discrimination across three waves. Methods: Racial-ethnic minority adolescents aged 10-19 (N = 735) at Midwest schools were surveyed yearly on Internet usage and experiences, mental well-being, and related risk and protective factors. We analyzed offline and online bullying/harassment, offline and online racial-ethnic discrimination, and time online in an autoregressive cross-lagged panel model. Results: Youth who reported more of one type of victimization also reported more of other victimization types and more time online concurrently. Our results show some (but not consistent) influences over time. Youth who experienced more offline bullying/harassment at wave 1 were more likely to report more wave 2 victimization in another context (online bullying/harassment) and in other content (offline racial-ethnic discrimination), although these associations did not appear in the second wave. Youth who reported more online bullying/harassment at wave 2 also experienced increased risk for offline bullying/harassment at wave 3. Youth who reported more time online were not more likely to experience later victimization, though youth who experienced more wave 1 offline bullying/harassment were more likely to report more next-wave time online. Conclusions: Racial-ethnic minority youth simultaneously and persistently face multiple types of victimization. Offline bullying/harassment interventions may have the added benefit of reducing other forms of victimization down the road, while reducing time online alone is unlikely to protect youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Adolescent development and growing divides in the digital age
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Adolescents are constantly connected to their devices, and concerns have been raised that this connectivity is damaging their development more generally, and their mental health in particular. Recent narrative reviews and meta-analyses do not support a strong linkage between the quantity of adolescents' digital technology engagement and mental health problems. Instead, it appears that offline vulnerabilities tend to mirror and shape online risks in ways that may further amplify mental health inequalities among youth. New approaches for supporting youth mental health, especially for vulnerable youth and those typically excluded from traditional services, are now both possible and required.
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Los adolescentes están constantemente conectados a sus dispositivos, y se ha planteado la preocupación de que esta conectividad puede dañar su desarrollo en general, y su salud mental en particular. Las revisiones narrativas y los metanálisis recientes no establecen una relación estrecha entre el grado de participación de los adolescentes en la tecnología digital y los problemas de salud mental. En cambio, parece que las vulnerabilidades cuando no están conectados tienden a reflejar y dar forma a los riesgos cuando están en línea, de manera que se pueden amplificar aún más las desigualdades de salud mental entre los jóvenes. Actualmente es possible y necesario desarrollar nuevos enfoques para apoyar la salud mental de los jóvenes, especialmente de los más vulnerables y de aquéllos que típicamente son excluidos de los servicios tradicionales.

Le comportement des adolescents constamment connectés à leurs téléphones suscite des inquiétudes quant aux conséquences de cette connectivité sur leur développement en général et leur santé mentale en particulier. Les récentes revues de la littérature et méta-analyses n'établissent pas de lien étroit entre l'importance de l'implication des adolescents dans les technologies numériques et les problèmes de santé mentale. Il semble au contraire que les vulnérabilités hors connexion reflètent et modèlent les risques en ligne, majorant encore les inégalités de santé mentale chez les jeunes. Il est désormais possible et nécessaire d'inventer de nouvelles façons d'aider la santé mentale des jeunes, en particulier celle des plus vulnérables et de ceux qui n'ont généralement plus accès aux réseaux de soutien habituels.

Young Adolescents' Digital Technology Use, Perceived Impairments, and Well-Being in a Representative Sample.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the cross-sectional associations between young adolescents' access, use, and perceived impairments related to digital technologies and their academic, psychological, and physical well-being. STUDY DESIGN: There were 2104 adolescents (ages 10-15 years), representative of the North Carolina Public School population, who completed questionnaires in 2015. Administrative educational records were linked with parental consent. RESULTS: Nearly all young adolescents (95%) had Internet access, 67% owned a mobile phone, and 68% had a social media account. Mobile phone ownership was not associated with any indicators of well-being (math and reading test scores, school belonging, psychological distress, conduct problems, or physical health) after controlling for demographic factors. Having a social media account and frequency of social media use were only robustly associated with conduct problems (explaining ∼3% of the variation in conduct problems). Despite the lack of strong associations, 91% of adolescents reported at least 1 perceived technology-related impairment and 29% of adolescents reported online-to-offline spillover of negative experiences. Economically disadvantaged adolescents reported similar access, but greater online-to-offline spillover and stronger associations between social media account ownership and poor psychological well-being compared with their more affluent peers. CONCLUSIONS: At the population level, there was little evidence that digital technology access and use is negatively associated with young adolescents' well-being. Youth from economically disadvantaged families were equally likely to have access to digital technologies, but were more likely than their more affluent peers to report negative online experiences. Closing the digital divide requires prioritizing equity in experiences and opportunities, as well as in access.

Annual Research Review: Adolescent mental health in the digital age: facts, fears, and future directions.

Adolescents are spending an increasing amount of their time online and connected to each other via digital technologies. Mobile device ownership and social media usage have reached unprecedented levels, and concerns have been raised that this constant connectivity is harming adolescents' mental health. This review synthesized data from three sources: (a) narrative reviews and meta-analyses conducted between 2014 and 2019, (b) large-scale preregistered cohort studies and (c) intensive longitudinal and ecological momentary assessment studies, to summarize what is known about linkages between digital technology usage and adolescent mental health, with a specific focus on depression and anxiety. The review highlights that most research to date has been correlational, focused on adults versus adolescents, and has generated a mix of often conflicting small positive, negative and null associations. The most recent and rigorous large-scale preregistered studies report small associations between the amount of daily digital technology usage and adolescents' well-being that do not offer a way of distinguishing cause from effect and, as estimated, are unlikely to be of clinical or practical significance. Implications for improving future research and for supporting adolescents' mental health in the digital age are discussed.

Long-term effects of a universal family intervention: mediation through parent-adolescent conflict.

This randomized trial of a family-focused preventive intervention for Mexican American middle schoolers examined internalizing, externalizing, and substance use outcomes in late adolescence, 5 years after completing the intervention. Parent-adolescent conflict was tested as a mediator of these effects. The role of parent and adolescent acculturation in these pathways was also examined. There were 494 seventh-grade adolescents and their primary female caregivers randomized to receive either a 9-week multicomponent intervention or a brief workshop control group. Assessments were conducted at pretest, 2-year follow-up (9th grade), and 5-year follow-up (when most participants were in the 12th grade). The Bridges program significantly reduced mother-adolescent conflict measured in the 9th grade, with conflict mediating program effects on internalizing and externalizing symptoms, adolescent substance use, and diagnosed internalizing disorder in late adolescence. Mother and child acculturation were both significantly predictive of late adolescence outcomes. Contrary to hypotheses, neither mother nor child acculturation emerged as a significant predictor of mother-adolescent conflict, and the interaction of mother and adolescent acculturation was similarly not related to mother-adolescent conflict. Intervention effects were largely consistent across different levels of acculturation. These findings provide support for the efficacy of family-focused intervention during early adolescence, both in reducing mental health problems and substance use in the long term and in impacting parent-adolescent conflict processes that appear to play an important role in the development of later adjustment problems.