Cargando…

Freedom dreaming to STEM: A conceptual model for Black youth’s racial and STEM identity development through social media

Social media use has become increasingly enmeshed in the lives of youth. Although investigations in this area have tended to focus on risk (e.g., cyberbullying) and negative outcomes (e.g., in mental health and academic functioning), a growing body of literature suggests there may be positive develo...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: LeBlanc, Tate, Loyd, Aerika Brittian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9773887/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36570990
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.944207
_version_ 1784855285781757952
author LeBlanc, Tate
Loyd, Aerika Brittian
author_facet LeBlanc, Tate
Loyd, Aerika Brittian
author_sort LeBlanc, Tate
collection PubMed
description Social media use has become increasingly enmeshed in the lives of youth. Although investigations in this area have tended to focus on risk (e.g., cyberbullying) and negative outcomes (e.g., in mental health and academic functioning), a growing body of literature suggests there may be positive developmental outcomes associated with Black youths’ social media use. Social media may offer Black youth a means of resisting negative experiences, expand their opportunities to create and explore, and facilitate the integration of their racial and STEM identities. Aligned with PYD perspectives and PVEST, we suggest this dynamic process occurs iteratively within youth and bidirectionally between youth and their environment (online and offline) over the course of development. In this article, we present a conceptual model to guide future investigations to address gaps in the literature and elucidate the linkages between social media use, racial identity, and STEM identity among Black youth. We begin by reviewing two frameworks that provide the theoretical foundations for our model. We then discuss our outcomes of interest: racial identity and STEM identity. Given its rapidly evolving nature, we then proceed with a discussion about how social media may be operationalized, noting limitations in the current literature and highlighting the unique ways in which social media differs from offline contexts. Subsequently, we present our conceptual model, which we situate within distal, proximal, and individual offline influences. We also propose processes that may link social media use to positive identity outcomes. We conclude this article with recommendations for future investigations.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9773887
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-97738872022-12-23 Freedom dreaming to STEM: A conceptual model for Black youth’s racial and STEM identity development through social media LeBlanc, Tate Loyd, Aerika Brittian Front Psychol Psychology Social media use has become increasingly enmeshed in the lives of youth. Although investigations in this area have tended to focus on risk (e.g., cyberbullying) and negative outcomes (e.g., in mental health and academic functioning), a growing body of literature suggests there may be positive developmental outcomes associated with Black youths’ social media use. Social media may offer Black youth a means of resisting negative experiences, expand their opportunities to create and explore, and facilitate the integration of their racial and STEM identities. Aligned with PYD perspectives and PVEST, we suggest this dynamic process occurs iteratively within youth and bidirectionally between youth and their environment (online and offline) over the course of development. In this article, we present a conceptual model to guide future investigations to address gaps in the literature and elucidate the linkages between social media use, racial identity, and STEM identity among Black youth. We begin by reviewing two frameworks that provide the theoretical foundations for our model. We then discuss our outcomes of interest: racial identity and STEM identity. Given its rapidly evolving nature, we then proceed with a discussion about how social media may be operationalized, noting limitations in the current literature and highlighting the unique ways in which social media differs from offline contexts. Subsequently, we present our conceptual model, which we situate within distal, proximal, and individual offline influences. We also propose processes that may link social media use to positive identity outcomes. We conclude this article with recommendations for future investigations. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-12-08 /pmc/articles/PMC9773887/ /pubmed/36570990 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.944207 Text en Copyright © 2022 LeBlanc and Loyd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
LeBlanc, Tate
Loyd, Aerika Brittian
Freedom dreaming to STEM: A conceptual model for Black youth’s racial and STEM identity development through social media
title Freedom dreaming to STEM: A conceptual model for Black youth’s racial and STEM identity development through social media
title_full Freedom dreaming to STEM: A conceptual model for Black youth’s racial and STEM identity development through social media
title_fullStr Freedom dreaming to STEM: A conceptual model for Black youth’s racial and STEM identity development through social media
title_full_unstemmed Freedom dreaming to STEM: A conceptual model for Black youth’s racial and STEM identity development through social media
title_short Freedom dreaming to STEM: A conceptual model for Black youth’s racial and STEM identity development through social media
title_sort freedom dreaming to stem: a conceptual model for black youth’s racial and stem identity development through social media
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9773887/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36570990
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.944207
work_keys_str_mv AT leblanctate freedomdreamingtostemaconceptualmodelforblackyouthsracialandstemidentitydevelopmentthroughsocialmedia
AT loydaerikabrittian freedomdreamingtostemaconceptualmodelforblackyouthsracialandstemidentitydevelopmentthroughsocialmedia