New article alert: Daily Diary Study of Adolescents’ Social Contact during COVID-19

Dr. Cavanagh's latest article, Comparing Justice-Involved and Community Adolescents’ Emotional Well-Being and Feelings of Social Connection During COVID-19: A Daily Diary Study of Adolescents’ Social Contact, is out now in Criminal Justice and Behavior.

This daily diary study explored how virtual social interactions (i.e., via phone or online) affected the mood and mental health of justice-involved and community adolescents across the first year of the pandemic.

We found that justice-involved youth especially benefited from social connections during the pandemic, as they had better self-conceptions and stronger feelings of social connection (although more loneliness as well) on days with virtual social contact. In other words, justice-involved youth saw strong enough benefits from virtual social contact to make up the "well-being gap" between system-involved and community youth.

Social connection with others is a critical need, particularly during sensitive periods of development, like adolescence.

Researchers are encouraged to explore the importance of social connection in non-traditional, vulnerable samples, among whom the mechanisms and benefits may differ from traditional youth samples. For example, the current findings reveal the potential power of social connection to enhance well-being for particularly vulnerable youth.

Practitioners need to create more opportunities for system-involved youth to engage in social contact, even if that contact is only possible through phone or video calls.