Social Media and Youth Mental Health T117

Course Summary

Practice Level: Beginner

The rise of digital media use has paralleled a mental health crisis for adolescents in the United States. Mental health professionals therefore must equip themselves with the latest information regarding technology and ways to mitigate its negative effects for youth.

Social Media and Youth Mental Health, describes the role of digital and interactive media in the lives of adolescents, including positive and negative influences on their identity formation, social connectiveness, and mental health. Designed for social workers, counselors, marriage and family therapists, and psychologists, the learning material addresses trending topics such as sexuality, cyberbullying, gaming, appearance-related social media consciousness (ASMC) as well as disordered eating, self-harm, and suicidality.  Risk factors and signs of problematic interactive media use (PIMU) are identified, as well as numerous ways for clinicians to support youth and their parents in promoting healthy interactive media use such as improving communication, providing an empowered sense of agency, multitasking effectively, and developing media literacy. Strategies for clinicians to incorporate media into psychological prevention, psychoeducation, assessment, and treatment is included as well as comments from young people themselves highlight key points.

Course Format

This course is based on a book that can be purchased here and a posttest. When you’re ready, purchase the test by clicking the “Add To Cart” or “Enroll” button. This will let you take the test and receive your certificate for CE credits.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe the roles that media play on youth development, including relationships, identity, and well-being.
2. Explain the connections between adolescent media use and sexuality, dating relationships, and mental health.
3. Recognize how online bullying, hateful speech, and discrimination affect adolescent mental health and social development, including the roles of anonymity, popularity, and kindness.
4. Identify how misinformation and disinformation influence adolescent mental health and decision-making, particularly for marginalized youth.
5. Explain how gaming supports adolescent identity, social connectedness, trust building, and belonging.
6. Describe privacy concerns related to children’s digital media use and online data practices.
7. Identify factors that contribute to beneficial or harmful effects of children’s interactive media use on their social, emotional, and behavioral well-being.
8. Recognize ways that parents and practitioners can promote healthy interactive media use in adolescents.
9. Describe problematic interactive media use and its associated negative effects on adolescents.
10. Explain how media multitasking and social media use relate to adolescent task performance, stress, and self-regulation.
11. Describe the online environment experience for adolescents with intersectional identities, including recommendations for improving the online environment.
12. Identify ways that social media may influence body image concerns and disordered eating in adolescence as well as strategies to mitigate these risks.
13. Describe the relationships between social media exposure, self-harm, suicide risk, protective factors, and online resources for youth.
14. Recognize how social media and specific applications may be incorporated into mental health psychoeducation, prevention, assessment, and treatment across the entire continuum of care.
15. Explain youth agency, rights, and ethical considerations in the design of digital environments.

Course Syllabus

• Part I: Foundational
  • I. Media’s Prominence in the Lives of Youth
  • II. Sexuality and Media: Exploration and Exploitation
  • III. Dignity, Diversity, and the Challenges of Bullying and Hateful Speech
  • IV. Misinformation, Disinformation, and Mental Health
  • V. Gaming, Identity Construction, and Social Connection
  • VI. Children’s Online Privacy: Uses, Abuses, and Rights
  • VII. What Makes Social Media Use Enhancing or Harmful? Understanding Social Media Use and Youth Well-Being
• Part II: Clinical Considerations and Special Populations
  • VIII. Social Media and Adolescent Mental Health: Clinical Implications and Approaches
  • IX. Media Multitasking, Social Media, and the Developing Brain: Impacts on Attention, Memory, and Brain Processing
  • X. Intersectional Identities Online: Race, Gender, Culture, Sex, and Class
  • XI. Body Image and Disordered Eating in Adolescence
  • XII. Social Media, Self-Harm, and Suicide
  • XIII. Role of Social Media Applications in Clinical Treatment XIV. Youth Agency, Rights, and the Promise of a Well-Designed Digital World

Author

Vicki Harrison, M.S.W.

Vicki Harrison, M.S.W., is Program Director of the Center for Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University in California.

Anne Collier, M.A.

Anne Collier, M.A., is Founder and Executive Director of The Net Safety Collaborative, a national nonprofit organization based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Steven Adelsheim, M.D.

Steven Adelsheim, M.D., is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University in California, where he is the Director of the Center for Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing.

Accreditation Approval Statements

CE4Less.com is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. CE4Less.com maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

CE4Less.com, provider #1115, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 08/08/2024–08/08/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 11 general continuing education credits.

Level Education Group, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0355.

Level Education Group, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0835.

We are committed to providing our learners with unbiased information. CE4Less never accepts commercial support and our authors have no significant financial or other conflicts of interest pertaining to the material.