Session: Internet-Based Technologies and Youth Development (Society for Social Work and Research 21st Annual Conference - Ensure Healthy Development for all Youth)

In 2006 the MacArthur Foundation put $50 million towards research on youth participation in digital media (Ito et al., 2008). This is part of a growing recognition of the changing social and intellectual landscapes occupied by today’s youth. Over 90% of youth surveyed by the Youth and Participatory Politics Survey have access to the Internet, and over 50% of youth send messages or chat online on a daily basis (Cohen and Kahne, 2012). Additionally, over 50% of all teens have created media content online, and over 30% have shared the content they created (Jenkins, 2009). The Internet represents a new and dynamic ecological context that plays an increasingly large role in structuring adolescent social interactions. Can certain types of online communication increase the developmental risk factors vulnerable youth are exposed to in impoverished communities? Conversely, how do youth strategically engage with social media technologies as potentially supportive tools, or as means of resisting dominant paradigms? How effective are online social work intervention strategies?

The papers in this panel explore the role of Internet-based-technologies in youth development. For social workers researching positive youth development, it is imperative that we understand their social realities; especially as online spaces are notoriously difficult for adults to monitor or assess. Our collective research leads us to believe that many social work practitioners who interact with youth on a daily basis are aware of the impact of technology on their clients’ lives, but have not been exposed to empirically-based intervention strategies that take the Internet ecology into account. Our goal here, therefore, is to not only advance empirical work that explores youth development in online contexts, but also to begin to make relevant practice recommendations.

The first paper uses a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of an online-based intervention designed to prevent/reduce tobacco use amongst underprivileged youth. Using a community-based participatory research framework, youth at the targeted health-clinic helped design the theory-driven intervention. The second paper uses inductive textual analysis to explore online communication among gang-involved youth, and the way this communication reflects or departs from traditional forms of gang activity. The researchers combine qualitative and computational methodologies and discuss implications for social worker intervention strategies. The third paper is a qualitative study drawing from 31 interviews with undergraduate students of color at a private Midwestern University. The study highlights the adaptive strategies used by students of color as they use the Internet as a social tool to combat racial microaggressions.

As social workers in the 21^st century, we suggest that developing a complex understanding of the digital social world inhabited by youth is essential to effectively designing and implementing interventions. The studies in this panel use innovative methodologies and theoretical approaches to address the relationship between the Internet and youth development. Across the board, our findings suggest the leading role social workers can play in developing evidence based practice strategies that incorporate technology.