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Most Teens Bounce Back: Using Diary Methods to Examine How Quickly Teens Recover from Episodic Online Risk Exposure

Bridget MCHUGH, Ohio State University, mchugh.155@osu.edu
Pamela WISNIEWSKI, University of Central Florida, pamwis@ucf.edu
Mary Beth ROSSON, Pennsylvania State University, mrosson@psu.edu
Heng XU, Pennsylvania State University, hxx4@psu.edu
John M CARROLL, Pennsylvania State University, jcarroll@psu.edu

Our CSCW 2017 research paper was released on the ACM Digital Library today!

Abstract: Cross-sectional research suggests that online risk exposure (e.g., cyberbullying, sexual solicitations, and explicit content) may negatively impact teens, increasing concerns over the risks teens are exposed to online. Yet, there has been little research as to how these experiences impact teens’ mood over time, or how long these effects may last. To examine the effects of online risk exposure on mood, we asked 68 teens to report their weekly online risk experiences, emotions, and sense of well-being for two months. We found that teens experienced more negative emotions the week that they reported cyberbullying and exposure to explicit content, but these effects were gone one week later. In addition, teens reported a slight increase in positive emotions and mental well-being during weeks they were exposed to other risks. Our results suggest that most of the risks teens in our study experienced online only pose brief negative effects, if any, and initiates a discussion on how our society may overly problematize the negative effects of online risk exposure on teens.

This research has already garnered news media attention from US News and World Report. However, I would like to encourage everyone to read the actual research study, since the news tends to frame things a bit more black and white, than the nuance we discuss in the actual paper. 😉