The use of social media has been increasing, and researchers are still learning the extent of its impact on adolescents. Little is also known about how COVID-19 has impacted teen social media use and parental mediation strategies, including how technology and social media use have changed for families, and the transitions that adolescents are now experiencing after returning to school and other activities. How can parents prevent problems with social media use and when should they intervene?

This webinar will present current research about the use of social media by youth and how Family Science practitioners can support parents when they need to intervene. Specifically, research will be shared on how the well-being of youth are either positively or negatively impacted by social media use and strategies for teaching parents mediation and monitoring practices. This will include guidance on digital well-being tools that can be used by parents to help adolescents develop healthy patterns of social media use.

This webinar will be useful for both researchers and practitioners. Information shared will assist researchers in developing questions and ideas for studies on examining and intervening in adolescent social media use. Practitioners will learn about preventive strategies and tools that can be used to help youth navigate social media use. By the end of this webinar, attendees will be able to:

1. Understand the impact of adolescent social media use on their well-being, both the potential risks and benefits;
2. Learn strategies to teach parents about managing the impact of social media use on adolescents’ well-being; and
3. Intervene when social media usage is having a negative impact on adolescents, both in-person and virtually.

Approved for 1 hour of CFLE continuing education credit.

NCFR members receive discounts on their webinar registration. Become a member today and receive the full benefits of NCFR membership!

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About the Presenters

Jodi Dworkin, Ph.D., is professor and extension specialist in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota. Her research and outreach focuses on parenting adolescents and college students, and the role of technology in these relationships. One of Dr. Dworkin’s many research projects includes Parenting 2.0, which is a collaborative project designed to gain a better understanding of the ways, and the reasons that parents use technology and to better understand the outcomes from technology use. In addition, Dr. Dworkin has been collecting data from parents of college students to understand how COVID-19 has differentially impacted family stress, students' experiences, and time to degree and graduation. She has also started a participatory action research project where parents and youth have been trained to interview other parents and youth to better understand how we might reimagine family-school-youth partnerships. 

Xiaoran Sun, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on the interplay among technology, family systems processes, adolescent well-being, and application of innovative data and methods in family research. She completed her postdoctoral training at Stanford University in the Department of Pediatrics and Communication. One of her ongoing research projects is the Family Screenome Study where she is collecting information from adolescents’ and parents’ smartphones to see how parent-adolescent digital communication influence relationship quality and mental health.

On-Demand Webinar Recording

Unable to attend the live webinar? Your registration will grant you access to watch the recording at your convenience. This webinar is now free for NCFR members and Certified Family Life Educators (CFLEs), and $94 for nonmembers and non-CFLEs.

Classroom Use

Webinars are a great resource to use in the classroom. Classroom and departmental use licenses allow faculty members to share the video in class or embed the video in their online learning management system. Departmental use licenses allow more than on faculty member to use the webinar in their class. We request that links or downloads are not shared with students.

License for classroom use by one professor is available for $141 for NCFR members, $215 for nonmembers.

License for departmental use (multiple professors) is available for $194 for NCFR members, $341 for nonmembers.

Departmental license for CFLE-approved programs is $167.

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