Technology can sting when reality bites: Adolescents' frequent online coping is ineffective with momentary stress

The fact that youth widely engage with the online space in order to improve their emotional health has been lost amongst the debate surrounding adolescents' technology use and associated well-being. Two studies focused on adolescents' use of technology to cope with stressors in daily life. Focus groups (Study 1; n = 16) indicated that youth readily identify using technology to cope and perceive it as helpful for emotional relief. Experience sampling participants (Study 2; n = 156) completed a baseline assessment of online coping and mental health, and one week of reports, five times daily, on their technology use, stress, and emotions. Multilevel regression results indicated that across their daily lives, youth who widely endorsed using online strategies to cope responded more negatively to stressors and displayed difficulties in recovering from worry and jealousy. Results held even controlling for use of technology, typical number of stressors, and mental health. Findings highlight the potential shortcomings and comorbid vulnerabilities for youth who frequently turn to the online environment to seek support, information, or distraction

Disadvantaged youth report less negative emotion to minor stressors when with peers

Previous Experience Sampling Method (ESM) studies demonstrate that adolescents’ daily emotional states are heavily influenced by their immediate social context. However, despite adolescence being a risk period for exposure to daily stressors, research has yet to examine the influence of peers on adolescents’ emotional responses to stressors encountered in their daily life. Adolescents (N = 108) from a low-SES school completed ESM reports of their social context, minor stressors and emotions, 5 times a day for 7 days. Based on previous findings that the peer context is experienced as positive and rewarding, we expected being with peers would be associated with lower post-stress negative emotions and higher happiness, compared to being with family or alone. As expected, being with peers after a stressor was associated with lower sadness, worry and jealousy compared to being alone, and lower sadness compared to being with family. Gender differences emerged for the influence of peers on sadness, worry, jealousy and happiness. These findings highlight the salient influence of peers on adolescents’ emotional reactivity to stressors as they occur in their natural environment. Findings are discussed in reference to peers as important emotion socialization agents during adolescence and in terms of theories of coping and emotion regulation

Ambulatory assessment of adolescent coping: It's a complicated process

Scholars have long‐called for researchers to treat coping as a process that is measured over an arc of time. Ambulatory assessment (AA) offers an appealing tool for capturing the dynamic process of adolescent coping. However, challenges in capturing the coping process are not altogether circumvented with AA designs. We conducted a scoping review of the AA literature on adolescent coping and draw from 60 studies to provide an overview of the field. We provide critiques of different AA approaches and highlight benefits and costs associated with various types of measurement within AA. We also speak to considerations of participant burden and compliance. We conclude with recommendations for developmental scholars seeking to deploy AA to capture this quintessential process among adolescents