TikTok use has grown rapidly since the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among adolescents. The goal of this study is to understand how and why teenagers use TikTok and how teenagers perceive these behaviors and motivations as contributing to their mental well-being. This qualitative, descriptive study involved interviewing teenagers one-on-one via…

This study seeks to explore the relationship between mental well-being and engagement, attitudes, and perceptions of social media use across adolescents. This study is based on a survey of adolescents (n = 3,568, mean age = 17.3) conducted in 2020 and 2021. Mental well-being was assessed using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS)…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the moderating effect of technology use for friendship maintenance in the associations between self-isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and friendship quality, measured 6 months later (Time 2). Participants were 1,567 seventh and eighth graders (51% female; 51% white; M[subscript age] = 13.47)…

This study explored the relationship between social interaction anxiety (SIA) and problematic smartphone use (PSU) among Chinese adolescents. Further, the roles of online basic psychological needs satisfaction (online BPNS), nature connectedness (NC), and related differences between urban and rural adolescents were examined. We recruited 840…

This study examines the role of adolescents-parents/teachers/peers relationships as explanatory variables of cyberbullying and problematic Internet-use (PIU) pre-and during COVID-19 pandemic. Questionnaires were delivered to 348 adolescents ages 13 to 18 years (M = 15.05) at two time-points, provided a rare opportunity for assessment the pandemic…

This study examined allocation of adolescents' free time differs depending on financial and spatial availability by exploiting the exogenous change on the school day. Using Korea Time Use Survey data, I found that adolescents allocate free time created by Saturday without school to mainly leisure activities. I also found that adolescents' private…

The primary purpose of this study was to identify subgroups of adolescents based on their reported use of technology. Secondary aims were to examine whether technology use typologies differ by gender and to explore whether technology use typologies are linked to psychological adjustment. The sample included 1,003 10th and 11th grade students from…

The use of digital media by adolescents living in out-of-home care raises safeguarding and risk-management concerns, creating challenges for practitioners in how to control risk while promoting independence. This article explores how professionals working in residential care negotiated their own and adolescents' use of ubiquitous digital…

Networked individualism enables Internet users to connect and socialize via their loose and transient multiple networks, whereas digital media literacy is a precondition of effective Internet use. In this study, an attempt has been made to find the link between networked individualism, digital media literacy, and young people's perception of their…

The number of mixed-ethnic adolescents from multicultural families in South Korea has rapidly increased over the last several years. Although traditionally ethnically homogeneous, Korea has recently shifted toward multiculturalism, yet little research has compared mixed and single-ethnic youth on adverse outcomes in Korea and, to date, no research…