AWARE: Mental Health Portrayals on Social Media and Implications on Adolescents’ Awareness and Well-being
Mental health, particularly depression and anxiety, is a prevalent topic on social media. While it raises awareness and promotes help-seeking behaviors, it can also lead to overinterpretation and self-diagnosis. Social media play a crucial role in shaping beliefs, opinions, and values, especially among adolescent users. Yet, little is known about how and by whom mental illnesses like depression and anxiety are portrayed on social media and which implications the portrayal has on the perceptions, beliefs, and well-being of adolescent users.
AWARE is a three-year project with four research objectives:
- Investigating how adolescents perceive mental health, particularly depression and anxiety, in their daily lives (including social media).
- Analyzing the portrayal of depression and anxiety on social media.
- Examining the reciprocal relationships between exposure to these portrayals and adolescents’ perceptions, beliefs, and subjective well-being.
- Investigating the influence of algorithm literacy, parental mediation, and perceived peer norms on these relationships.
The project runs over 3 years from January 2025 until December 2027. It uses a mixed-methods approach, including a focus group study, a content analysis of social media posts, a validation study adapting a previously developed Social Media Algorithm Literacy Scale, and a three-wave longitudinal school survey. The research will focus on adolescents aged 12 to 19 in German-speaking Switzerland, Austria, and Germany as social media use intensifies and peaks during this life stage.
The AWARE project is co-funded by the SNF, FWF, and DFG. It will be co-coordinated by three researchers from Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. An international advisory board with experts from the UK, the USA, and Germany supports the project. The project’s results can be used to derive policy recommendations and to develop targeted prevention strategies to consolidate and improve adolescents’ (perceptions of) mental health in today’s digital societies.
Website link: https://www.aware-project.com/
Team
Principal Investigators
Anne-Linda Camerini, USI, Switzerland
Kathrin Karsay, UVienna, Austria
Ruth Wendt, LMU, Germany
Postdoc
Sophie Mayen, USI, Switzerland
PhD Students
Dora Weubel, USI, Switzerland
Alina Fiona Danilkow, UVienna, Austria
Hannah Bauer, LMU, Germany
Student Assistants
Janina Hagner, LMU, Germany
Andre Foster, LMU, Germany
Lena Klampfer, UVienna, Austria
