Exploring the Impact of Social Media on Care Experienced Young People's Self-View and Mental Wellbeing: Implications for Social Media Design & Policy

Social media is a prominent part of many people's lives; some may even say it is unavoidable. According to research, there are 3.5 billion social media users worldwide (Emarsys, 2019). When focusing on the young people of today termed 'Generation Z', Instagram is one of the most used at 73% active users, followed by Snapchat (63%) and YouTube (62%) (Marketing Charts, 2019), and Generation Z have been found to browse social media sites for roughly three hours each day, which is around an hour longer than the average millennial (World Economic Forum, 2019). With young people spending so much time on social media, it is important to research the effects it has on mental health (MH) and wellbeing.

Currently, results around social media's influence on mental health are mixed and inconsistent (Best, Manktelow & Taylor, 2014). Typically, this research has focused on the general population, whereas this research aims to focus on a group of people who are more vulnerable to mental health issues: looked after young people. Looked after children and adolescents are more susceptible to mental health issues (Richardson & Lelliott, 2003), so it is important to explore how social media impacts upon the mental health of a population who may already be vulnerable to such issues.

This project is focusing on three specific aspects of mental health that contribute to the mental model of the self: self-esteem, self-worth and sense of identity. Aims of the research include: finding out if the effects of social media on self-esteem differ between the general population and looked after adolescents (aged between 11-18 years old); exploring how social media makes looked after adolescents feel about their self-esteem, self-worth and identity; identifying specific features of social media that are beneficial or detrimental to those aspects of mental health; exploring what adolescents know about existing policies around social media and what they think should be considered by the government; and discussing ways in which looked after adolescents may be able to use digital means as a way of self-care, by increasing awareness of digital tools online that could help them navigate social media in a way that is beneficial for their mental health.

The rife use of personal data in this project is therefore relevant to Horizon's theme of 'Creating Our Lives in Data', as well as the global impact it will hopefully have on offering guidance and insight to several sectors, such as social care, social media designers, policy and mental health professionals, potentially making social media a safer place for those who may be more vulnerable to mental health issues. Due to the vulnerable nature of the participant group, responsible and ethical research will also play a central part in the design and conduct of the research activities. This research has two industry partners: The Andrew and Virginia Rudd Centre for Adoption and Research Practice, and the Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre.

We will collaborate with over 40 partners drawn from across FMCG and Food; Creative Industries; Health and Wellbeing; Smart Mobility; Finance; Enabling technologies; and Policy, Law and Society. These will benefit from engagement with our CDT through the following established mechanisms:

- Training multi-disciplinary leaders. Our partners will benefit from being able to recruit highly skilled individuals who are able to work across technologies, methods and sectors and in multi-disciplinary teams. We will deliver at least 65 skilled PhD graduates into the Digital Economy.

- Internships. Each Horizon student undertakes at least one industry internship or exchange at an external partner. These internships have a benefit to the student in developing their appreciation of the relevance of their PhD to the external societal and industrial context, and have a benefit to the external partner through engagement with our students and their multidisciplinary skill sets combined with an ability to help innovate new ideas and approaches with minimal long-term risk. Internships are a compulsory part of our programme, taking place in the summer of the first year. We will deliver at least 65 internships with partners.

- Industry-led challenge projects. Each student participates in an industry-led group project in their second year. Our partners benefit from being able to commission focused research projects to help them answer a challenge that they could not normally fund from their core resources. We will deliver at least 15 such projects (3 a year) throughout the lifetime of the CDT.

- Industry-relevant PhD projects. Each student delivers a PhD thesis project in collaboration with at least one external partner who benefits from being able to engage in longer-term and deeper research that they would not normally be able to undertake, especially for those who do not have their own dedicated R&D labs. We will deliver at least 65 such PhDs over the lifetime of this CDT renewal.

- Public engagement. All students receive training in public engagement and learn to communicate their findings through press releases, media coverage.

This proposal introduces two new impact channels in order to further the impact of our students' work and help widen our network of partners.

- The Horizon Impact Fund. Final year students can apply for support to undertake short impact projects. This benefits industry partners, public and third sector partners, academic partners and the wider public benefit from targeted activities that deepen the impact of individual students' PhD work. This will support activities such as developing plans for spin-outs and commercialization; establishing an IP position; preparing and documenting open-source software or datasets; and developing tourable public experiences.

- ORBIT as an impact partner for RRI. Students will embed findings and methods for Responsible Research Innovation into the national training programme that is delivered by ORBIT, the Observatory for Responsible Research and Innovation in ICT (www.orbit-rri.org). Through our direct partnership with ORBIT all Horizon CDT students will be encouraged to write up their experience of RRI as contributions to ORBIT so as to ensure that their PhD research will not only gain visibility but also inform future RRI training and education. PhD projects that are predominantly in the area of RRI are expected to contribute to new training modules, online tools or other ORBIT services.