With a focus on the impact of the digital world—including social media—on children’s health and wellbeing, an annual meeting hosted by the Yale Child Study Center (YCSC) earlier this month brought nearly 100 people together for an afternoon of talks by experts in the field. Fourteen faculty members provided brief, TED-talk style talks around the meeting’s theme, with a balance of related concerns and opportunities. Keynote speaker Andrew Solomon, PhD, wrapped up the afternoon sessions, addressing both the dangers and the promise of the digital age and its impact on children, adolescents, and families.
YCSC Chair Linda Mayes, MD, opened this year’s meeting by welcoming attendees and stating, “This has been a time of tremendous growth and change at the Child Study Center…we've had growth in our research mission with new faculty…closer ties with the Department of Pediatrics, and we're soon to open an urgent care center in the ED. We have very close alignment now with the Children's Hospital, which is wonderful. We are opening a new facility in Westport, so that we can serve more families in the state...and much more.”
Patrick Luyten, PhD, a visiting professor at the YCSC from the University of Leuven in Belgium, spoke about the importance of trust in human development, and the concept of being a “digital immigrant” versus “digital native,” noting that the average age at which a child has their first smartphone is 8. “And they surf the Internet before that age,” he added, “So they are met confronted with a whole range of social information and opinions and views very rapidly in life. What is perhaps the most concerning is that this happens in isolation in their own bedroom, or in the presence of peers, without the supporting mediation narrative of their parents and other adults.”
Luyten also described a related study with a large sample of people aged 16 to 24, where they found that 50% had been the victim of cybercrime. Higher rates were found in those with a history of early adversity, with more than 2 to 3 times the likelihood of becoming involved in non-consensual sexting online. “That is really concerning,” he stated. “I think there's an important message here for intervention, but particularly prevention...the need to educate adults, but particularly young people about what appropriate trust is really about. And this is a task that is important to all of us...particularly in this age of fake news and social misinformation.”
Over the course of the afternoon, several faculty members with appointments at the YCSC and Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, as well as in the Yale Departments of Psychology and Pediatrics, addressed the potential dangers and benefits of digital media—including bridging gaps in access to adolescent substance use prevention using digital interventions—and the need for responsible use and regulation.
Christine Cha, PhD, a new YCSC faculty member and the inaugural core faculty member at the Yale Center for Brain and Mind Health, spoke about digital media and teen self-disclosure of suicide risk, noting, “Peer-to-peer disclosures of suicidal thoughts and behaviors sometimes happen in-person, but often happen through digital and social media. And for better or for worse, such technologies already define so much of the reality of teens today, and certainly that of suicidal teens. Leaning into this perspective, my lab is currently building infrastructure to bring together research innovations in mental healthcare and AI to better detect and intervene on suicidal crises in ways that were never before possible.”
Speakers also highlighted the importance of understanding how people with autism interact with social media, the effectiveness of trauma treatment models, and the potential of immersive technologies like virtual reality in pediatric healthcare. The complexities of adolescent mental health were addressed, along with challenges surrounding regulation of social media, the case for social and emotional learning, the growing emergence of artificial intelligence, and the need for better content moderation and age verification on social media platforms. Additional speaker details and topics are available in the web calendar event.
In her opening remarks Mayes noted, “I am inspired every day by the dedication of my colleagues...serving children and adolescents, conducting research asking some of the most difficult and cutting edge questions, and training the next generation, even in these sometimes remarkably stressful times—giving their all, giving their greatest creativity, and really giving of themselves to help the next generation. To me it is truly an honor and a gift to be with this department and my colleagues.”
The YCSC serves as the Department of Child Psychiatry for the Yale School of Medicine and has been serving children and families through the integration of evidence-based clinical practice, training, and research for over 100 years. Historically, the center’s annual meeting has focused on gathering a group of YCSC Associates together with YCSC faculty members to feature select work underway at the center. In recent years, the meeting has expanded to include a broader array of YCSC and Yale community members, engaging the associates and other participants in presentations focused on a theme while showcasing the multiple and multi-faceted missions and varied work of the center.
This annual event has been held for nearly 40 years and was convened in person until 2020, when the format shifted to the Zoom platform due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year's meeting was the first held in-person since pre-pandemic, though a virtual component was also made available leading up to and following the event, including a variety of virtual posters, informational videos, and supplemental resources available on-line. Information about past and future events, including this annual meeting, can be found on the YCSC website.
To receive notification about this and other YCSC events in your inbox, please subscribe to the center's newsletter, YCSC Connections. For information about how to make a gift to support the work of the YCSC, please contact Sitwat Atiq.