# Implications for socio-emotional well-being from adolescent peer interaction on social media

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2020 · $163,622

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Social media use is ubiquitous among adolescents and is often used as a tool for socializing with peers.
Adolescent socioemotional wellbeing is often driven by peer relationships and interactions, yet there is a
paucity of research examining day-to-day social media peer interactions among adolescents. In addition, the
predictors of these interactions and their prospective associations with adolescents’ subjective wellbeing are
understudied. Dr. Selkie is a board-certified Adolescent Medicine pediatrician whose prior research has
focused on the ways social media may relate to adolescent health. This mentored career development award
will allow her to learn additional methods for studying adolescent peer interactions on social media. She has
built a multidisciplinary mentoring team from the University of Michigan Departments of Pediatrics, Psychology,
Health Behavior and Health Education, Information, and Biostatistics as well as the University of Wisconsin
Department of Pediatrics. This team will provide methodological and content expertise and guide her Training
and Career Goals, which are to gain expertise and skills in: 1) theoretical models of child and adolescent social
and emotional development; 2) primary data collection for research; 3) creating and testing conceptual models
of peer social interaction on digital media in adolescents using principles of participatory design; 4) advanced
multivariate statistical techniques including factor analysis, cluster analysis, and multinomial regression; 5)
information science and social computing to inform future studies on social media behaviors in adolescents.
The research plan tests a model in which childhood self-regulation predicts a social media interaction style in
early adolescence, which in turn predicts a range of subjective wellbeing in the middle adolescent years. The
aims are: Aim 1: Identify styles of social media peer interaction (e.g., positive (compliments, social support),
neutral (planning activities, statements of fact), or negative (criticism, exclusion)) among adolescents at age
13; Aim 2: Test the hypothesis that better childhood self-regulation (higher positive emotion regulation,
inhibitory control, and prosocial behavior, and lower anger, frustration, and emotional symptoms) is associated
with more adaptive social media interaction styles; Aim 3: Test the hypothesis that more adaptive social media
interaction styles at age 13 are associated with greater subjective wellbeing (i.e., higher self-esteem, social
connectedness with classmates and close friends, and positive affect and lower loneliness, negative affect,
and perceived stress) at ages 15-16. These Aims will be carried out through direct observation of social media
behavior in a cohort of 150 low-income adolescents, followed by analysis of associations between these
behaviors, previously collected data on child self-regulation, and data on subjective wellbeing in later
adolescence. This award will prov...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9986851
- **Project number:** 5K23HD093815-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Ellen Marie Selkie
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $163,622
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-08-07 → 2021-07-15

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9986851

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9986851, Implications for socio-emotional well-being from adolescent peer interaction on social media (5K23HD093815-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9986851. Licensed CC0.

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