Nov
23
2016
Acquiring adequate levels of self-esteem and social competence is a crucial part of adolescents’ psychosocial development. Both are largely shaped in social interactions with others, especially with peers, much of which takes place online.
In her dissertation, Maria Koutamanis investigates the possible consequences of online communication for the psychosocial development of adolescents. She focuses on the long-term relationships between online communication and social competence and self-esteem. She also looks at the underlying processes that may explain these relationships as well as the differences and precursors that may predict which adolescents are most likely to experience positive or negative consequences of their online communication.
The public defense of this dissertation, entitled Psychosocial Consequences of Adolescents’ Online Communication, will be held at 14:00 on November 23, 2016 at the Agnietenkapel. This work was supervised by Professor Patti Valkenburg, Professor Jochen Peter, and dr. Helen Vossen.
Text originally published by the University of Amsterdam.