FYM-Social Media and Child and Youth Mental Health

There are close to five billion active social media users worldwide, many of whom are youth. Close to 1 in 5 youth report that they use YouTube and TikTok "almost constantly" (Pew, 2024). Given social media's status with young people, researchers, clinicians, educators, and parents are beginning to pay close attention to understanding how social media use affects child and youth development. In this presentation, Dr. Vaillancourt will demonstrate how social media is use by youth and how algorithms can influence how they think and feel. Social media's association with mental health problems and educational outcomes will also be discussed, along with best-practice solutions.

Dr. Tracy Vaillancourt is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Youth Mental Health and Violence Prevention at the University of Ottawa where she is cross appointed as a full professor in Counselling Psychology, Faculty of Education and the School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences. Dr. Vaillancourt is also a member of the Brain and Mind Institute, Faculty of Medicine and the Centre for Health Law, Policy, and Ethics, Faculty of Law, uOttawa. She is the past president of the International Society for Research on Aggression, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), the chair of the RSC/CCUNESCO COVID-19 Canada Learning Loss working group, and the Chief Editor, Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry – Child Mental Health and Interventions. She is also a senior fellow with the Centre for International Governance Innovation.

Recordings of the session will be made available to OPA members following the session.