Nowadays, modern socio-technological configurations lead the scientific, medical and educational communities to numerous debates concerning digital uses among young people. The periods of adolescence and emerging adulthood ...
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Nowadays, modern socio-technological configurations lead the scientific, medical and educational communities to numerous debates concerning digital uses among young people. The periods of adolescence and emerging adulthood both correspond to a phase of identity exploration, which consists in testing roles in different contexts and integrating them into a coherent personal identity. While digital contexts can be seen as contexts of opportunity and risk, research addressing young people's well-being through their digital uses suggests that heavy use can lead to adverse socio-emotional outcomes while others indicate that these online spaces can provide opportunities to develop psychosocial skills, feel emotionally supported. Accordingly, this research aims to propose a conceptual and methodological framework that allows for the study of the relationship between young people's online experiences and their psychosocial development through the construction of their identity and their level of psychological adjustment, while taking into account the specific characteristics of young people (i.e., age period and gender). Our population consists of adolescents school and young adults in higher education. In a cross-sectional and longitudinal approach, this research work included 3 measurement periods: a first period in December 2018 (N=1970), a second period in March 2019 (N=970), and a third period in May/June 2019 (N=819). Participants completed a set of questionnaires assessing digital uses (e.g., social network integration, forms of active and passive use, online self-presentation, domains of online activities), identity construction processes (e.g., in-breadth, in-depth and ruminative explorations; commitment-making, identification with commitments, and reconsideration with commitments), and indices of psychological adjustment (e.g., self-esteem and life satisfaction). The data was processed using a dual approach, both person-centered and variable-centered. Semi-structured interviews were carried out four months after the quantitative data collection. Our results underline a great diversity among young people and have enabled us to identify contrasting profiles: 6 digital use profiles and 7 identity statuses. Cross-tabulation analyses indicate coherent and stable links between the digital usage profiles and the identity statuses. Concerning psychological adjustment, our results specify that the digital use profiles characterised by an authentic online self-presentation, and the identity statuses characterised by strong commitments, present the best levels of psychological adjustment. Conversely, digital use profiles characterised by a falsified online self-presentation and identity statuses associated with low commitments are associated with the lowest levels of psychological adjustment. The study of the cross-lagged links between the maladaptive identity process of ruminative exploration and the digital use variables, considering intra and inter-individual variability over time (i.e., RI-CLPM), reveals numerous associations, specific to the age period and the gender of the young people. Moreover, semi-structured interviews made it possible to clarify the psychological experience of a teenager and a young adult, and highlight some differences in digital uses related to their motivations and levels of development. All these results add to the literature and provide a new perspective on the digital uses of young French people. Digital uses seem to be problematic for the psychosocial development of some young people, while for others they may be more favourable in terms of identity construction and psychological adjustment. This study highlights the importance of accurately characterising digital uses by taking into account the age period and gender of young people in order to assess their impact on psychosocial development. Finally, this study leads to research perspectives and applied recommendations for education and health.
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