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For families with limited opportunities for face-to-face interaction, social media can be a vital communication medium to help shape the family identity, maintain bonds, and accomplish shared tasks. This mixed-methods systematic review of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method empirical studies published between 1997 and 2019 uses a convergent...
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... Both genders agreed that video calls are an established but somewhat occasional means of communication in families. Previous studies have emphasized that video calls are becoming increasingly significant for maintaining family ties, especially in longdistance relationships (Abel et al., 2019) [1] . Regarding WhatsApp, males (mean = 2.67) and females (mean = 2.54) both indicated moderate use, with females using it slightly less frequently than males. ...
... With the widespread adoption of ICTs, migrants increasingly navigate and negotiate belonging across both digital and physical spaces. However, existing research tends to treat digital connectivity either as a tool for sustaining transnational ties (Brandhorst et al., 2020;Hjorth, 2022;Abel et al., 2021) or as a means of integrating into host societies (Wilding and Winarnita, 2022;Candidatu and Ponzanesi, 2022), often overlooking how these interactions shape an emergent, hybrid form of belonging that unfolds over time. ...
This study conducts a qualitative approach to examine the everyday practices of Chinese migrants in Geneva, Switzerland, unveiling how they gradually shape a hybrid sense of belonging through the interplay of structural constraints, personal agency, and mediation by ICTs. The findings indicate that the construction of belonging among these migrants does not follow a linear path of assimilation but rather evolves through innovative uses of everyday media tactics and ICTs. Migrants tactically employ self-presentation, weave transnational information networks, construct digital communities, and engage in technological empowerment to convert gaps in the legal, social, and economic structures into spaces of flexible belonging. The research highlights the non-uniform, tactical, and open-ended nature of hybrid belonging. As this form of belonging continuously reconfigures itself, ICTs emerge as crucial mediators, and everyday practices become critical arenas that allow migrants to navigate their existence “here and there.” This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex processes that migrants navigate and broadens the conceptualization of digital diaspora and the digital transformation of social networks. It underscores the significance of hybrid belonging as an evolving, mediated, and lived experience, redefining how migrants negotiate their identities amidst the constraints and opportunities of their new environments.
... These include daily rituals (home décor, clothing style, food preparation), memory rituals (sharing experiences, telling stories, repeating cultural proverbs), recreation rituals (cultural celebrations, living in ethnic enclaves, starting a business), and connection rituals (family reunions, immigrants sending money home, visiting one's place of origin; see Falicov, 2007;Walsh, 2003Walsh, , 2006. Although these rituals may differ in content and structure across families and cultures, families from all cultural backgrounds invariably engage in these rituals to provide organization around family life, preserve family cultural identity and coherence, and transfer family cultural values and norms across generations through repetitive shared practices (Abel et al., 2021;Fiese, 2006Fiese, , 2007Walsh, 2016). ...
In this article, we advance the thesis, called the cultural continuity hypothesis, which states that heritage culture retention represents an important psychological motivation that underlies a wide array of human behaviors and that is important for positive psychosocial functioning. Cultural continuity entails the purposeful preservation of salient features of one’s heritage culture across time and is both functional and adaptive. By integrating diverse bodies of literature across disciplines, we provide robust evidence for consistent and universal value attached to the goals that serve to satisfy the need for cultural continuity and that these goals are present from an early age. We also provide robust evidence that the successful attainment of goals related to satisfying the need for cultural continuity is important for psychosocial health and well-being. We conclude by providing explicit criteria that would subject the cultural continuity hypothesis to rigorous empirical tests, followed by future directions for heritage culture retention research. Cultural continuity appears to be an important psychological motivation that transcends populations and contexts and that is important for positive human functioning.
... A nuanced psychological perspective suggests that social media use may foster users' external connections with others, such as maintaining relationships, strengthening relational bonds, and perceiving emotional support [46]. These effects collectively enhance users' need for a sense of community. ...
Background: The intersection of occupational burnout and digital leisure activities has garnered increasing scholarly attention in recent years. However, limited research has examined how Chinese healthcare workers engage with short-form video apps as a stress management tool. Objectives: This study employs a serial multiple mediation model to explore the impact of occupational burnout on the use of short-form video apps and its subsequent effects on a sense of community, intrinsic rewards, and life satisfaction among Chinese healthcare workers aged 18–34. Methods: Data were collected through an online survey, with 362 valid responses, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, hierarchical regression, and mediation analyses, including serial mediation via SPSS 25.0. Results: The results demonstrate a positive direct association between occupational burnout and the use of short-form video apps. Furthermore, the relationship between the use of short-form video apps and life satisfaction was mediated through two distinct pathways, namely, a sense of community and intrinsic rewards. Conclusions: These findings contribute to the expanding body of literature on the role of digital media in stress management and well-being among healthcare workers, as well as highlighting evidence-based digital interventions to support healthcare workers’ well-being in high-stress settings.
... Platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook make it easier to maintain regular communication, allowing parents to monitor their children's well-being and activities. This improves overall family cohesion by fostering a more accessible and immediate mode of interaction, which is especially beneficial for parents with busy schedules or living far from their children (Abel, Machin, and Brownlow, 2021). ...
This study examines the challenges posed by Problematic Social Media Use (PSMU) on parenting in Nigeria, while recognizing social media’s positive potential as a platform for knowledge sharing, education, and improved family communication. Drawing from Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory, the research investigates how excessive and compulsive social media use disrupts traditional parenting practices, neglects responsibilities, and exposes children to online risks. The methodology employs a combination of systematic and narrative approaches, integrating structured literature review and qualitative accounts to explore the socio-cultural and moral dimensions of PSMU within the Nigerian context. The findings reveal that there are dangers to compulsive involvement in social media platforms, it can also enrich parenting by providing access to valuable resources and maintaining family connections, particularly in situations of physical separation. Two key recommendations emerge from this analysis: first, parents should set clear boundaries for social media usage and prioritize offline family interactions to strengthen bonds and minimize risks. Second, policymakers should implement digital literacy programs and promote awareness campaigns to encourage responsible social media use and ensure children’s online safety. The study advocates for a balanced approach to social media use that maximizes its benefits while mitigating its drawbacks to foster healthier parenting practices in a digital age.
... It is not uncommon to find a schematic overview of the digital ecosystem in purely in terms of interconnected smart home technologies (Reinisch et al., 2010;Stolojescu-Crisan et al., 2021). However in the last few years, there has been a greater focus on the interplay between humans and technologies, with one significant body of work focussing on the motivations for adoption of different domestic technologies, typically using variants of the technology acceptance model (Almazroi, 2023;Kumar et al., 2023), and another body of work focussing on family dynamics, digital rules and control issues such as the parenting of screen time (Judge et al., 2010;Kirk et al., 2016;Beneteau et al., 2020;Abel et al., 2021;Duckert and Barkhuus, 2021;Furszyfer Del Rio, 2022) There have also been some attempts to integrate these literatures and to get a more comprehensive overview of how both attitudes to technology and family dynamics can shape the digital functioning of the family home (Carvalho et al., 2015). Finally, and unsurprisingly, there have also been a number of recent studies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that address the ways that families have used communication technologies to stay in touch (Judge et al., 2010;Heshmat and Neustaedter, 2021). ...
... Other studies have looked at a more dispersed family model, sometimes with a focus on long-distance relationships, or on families divided (e.g., because of the COVID-19 pandemic, or divorce) (Odom et al., 2010;Jenkins, 2017). For example, Abel et al. (2021) conducted systematic review of studies published between 1997 and 2019 that explored how long-distance families use social media to keep in touch They described a range of uses for social media, highlighting some of the bonding outcomes of different social media affordances (e.g., synchronous vs. asynchronous communication, video vs. text) as well as showing how different family rituals, (helping with homework, preparing meals, Christmas celebrations) could be enacted on different forms of social media. Some of the papers in this study (and published subsequently) have dealt explicitly with the way the COVID-19 pandemic affected household activities, as people were forced to work from home and rely upon digital means to stay in touch with friends and family (Heshmat and Neustaedter, 2021). ...
Despite a growing number of studies describing the digital ecosystems of the home, few have explored the human component of this ecosystem and fewer have accounted for household and relationship diversity. We asked the inhabitants of nine households to share images of their digital devices and then interviewed them about how the technology was distributed and used, what roles they adopted in relation to the different devices and what boundaries or rules they set up to manage joint use. Following a thematic analysis, we describe (i) the digital components of the ecosystem and their use; (ii) the humans in the ecosystem and their relationships with technology and with each other, and (iii) interconnectedness in terms of joint use and self- or other-imposed restrictions. We use this data to describe dimensions against which households will meaningfully differ and suggest how these dimensions might be used to explore the implications of household and relationship diversity for future smarthome technologies.
... However, the dual-edged nature of technology in relationships is further complicated by cultural and social factors. A study conducted by Abel (2021), found that in more collectivist societies, where family cohesion is highly valued, the negative impacts of technoference might be buffered by stronger family support systems. This contrasts with findings from more individualistic cultures, such as the United States, where technoference has been more strongly associated with relationship strain and mental health challenges (Zoppolat, 2022). ...
... To address these limitations, future research should consider longitudinal designs to examine how technoference evolves over time and its lasting effects on family dynamics, relationship satisfaction, and mental health (Twenge et al., 2019). Investigating the role of cultural, socio-economic, and geographic factors is essential for a more nuanced understanding of technoference in diverse contexts (Abel et al., 2021). Additionally, experimental studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions such as digital detox programs, boundary-setting techniques, and tech-free zones in mitigating the negative impacts of technology use (Hertlein & Blumer, 2013). ...
... Thanks to new information and communication technologies (ICTs), distant parenting practices using mobile phones are now embedded in the lives of families around the world, where children are separated from their parents due to labor mobility, divorce, war, and other situations [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Through instant (e.g., video/audio calls) or asynchronous communications (e.g., social media comments), parents from these families show various forms of support and control, and thus appear to be involved in their children's development and learning [7][8][9]. Studies showed that, for example, some parents had warm chats with their children to show care or monitored their children's behaviors [10], while other parents imposed harsh punishments at a distance [11]. These practices are known as "mobile phone parenting" [10] or "remote/distant parenting" [1]. ...
... Besides physically present parenting, Abel et al. argue that remote interactions between family members through ICT can also shape family relationships in a harmonious or conflictual way [7]. Canary and Stafford identified dimensions of long-distance family relationship maintenance practices, namely openness, positivity, assurances, network, and sharing tasks [37]. ...
In China, some rural parents do not live together with their children because they migrate to urban regions for work, and therefore they sometimes use a mobile phone in parenting their left-behind children (LBC), who are living with grandparents. This study used a serial mediation model to test the mediating roles of distant mothering and post-separation mother–child relationship quality in the link between recalled pre-separation mother–child relationship quality and social–emotional adjustment of 3-to-6-year-old LBC living in a rural context in China. Cross-sectional questionnaire data were collected from 185 triads, consisting of grandparents (rating child adjustment), migrant mothers (rating mother–child relationship qualities and distant mothering), and preschool teachers (rating child adjustment). The results showed that pre- and post-separation relationship qualities were positively related to each other and to positive distant mothering. There were no serial mediating effects, but a full individual mediating role of post-separation relationship quality and positive distant mothering was identified for the link between child prosocial behavior and externalizing problems, respectively. Despite the general decline in mother–child relationship quality after separation, mothers who perceived a higher quality of the pre-separation mother–child relationship showed a more cohesive relationship with their LBC, which might increase the prosocial behavior of the children. Additionally, a higher quality of the pre-separation relationship was associated with more distant mothering of positive characteristics, which went together with fewer children externalizing problems. These findings highlight the importance of a continuous high-quality mother–child bond and favorable maternal parenting practices in digital interactions for separated families.
... Social media platforms can eliminate barriers that traditionally separate individuals, facilitating the cultivation of interpersonal connections and enabling the establishment of relationships that transcend geographical limits (Boyd, 2008). The availability of social media communication enables children to sustain relationships with distant family members and friends who have relocated (Abel et al., 2021;Holtzman et al., 2021). Social media usage has become deeply ingrained among young people in Ghana, leading to a heavy reliance on it for various purposes such as entertainment, academic activities, social messaging, creative expression, and as a platform for seeking support in times of personal distress when confiding in close acquaintances is not feasible (Asare-Donkoh, 2018; Ryan et al., 2014;UNICEF, 2017). ...
In modern society, children actively engage with social media platforms, and Ghana is not an exception to this trend. People have, however, placed an excessive amount of focus on the negative implications of using social media, which has overshadowed the positive effects that it has on children. This study examines the use of social media by children, including their preferred platforms, as well as the positive and negative consequences associated with their usage. This was a cross-sectional study that employed convenient and snowball sampling procedures for data collection and analysis. The study was conducted on 400 children aged 8 to 17 in Tema. The Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT) is the study’s underlying theory. The association between demographic characteristics and correlates of social media usage was examined using bivariate analysis, whereas the qualitative data analysis was guided by thematic analysis. The results show that 87.5% of children have ever used social media, with males being more likely than females to have done so (91.7% vs. 83.5%). The main reason social media platforms are used by children (87%) is for entertainment. TikTok has the highest usage percentage, making up 88.7% of all platforms, according to the findings. Some benefits of social media include communication, entertainment, and resources for creativity, research, and academic work. Also, the detrimental consequences of social media usage comprise exposure to sexually explicit material, addiction in children, and diminished academic achievement in children who become too engrossed in its usage. The study demonstrated that social media is widely used among children in Ghana. TikTok is the most popular social media platform among children, and it is their preferred platform. Parents are urged to encourage their children to use social media platforms for beneficial purposes, and media industry stakeholders should develop and implement initiatives to increase the benefits of social media for children. Regulation and supervision are necessary to mitigate the adverse consequences of children’s social media usage.
... Further research on health memes may be retrievable from dissertations and the grey literature, but we included only peer-reviewed articles for quality purposes. The social media environment evolves rapidly, leading to the potential for some findings to become quickly outdated 64 . We believe this issue may extend to research on social media in general and memes in particular. ...
Objective
We conducted a systematic review of the literature on online health memes to (a) detect and describe the available research, (b) identify key findings, and (c) delineate future research needs/opportunities.
Data Source
Databases, communication and public health journals, and ancestry search.
Study Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
Empirical studies, in English, published in peer-reviewed academic journals, and focused on memes to discuss health-related topics.
Data Extraction
We scrutinized 357 empirical articles and included 35.
Data Synthesis
Descriptive summary of the locations where studies were conducted, the health topics addressed, theories and methods used, features of memes analyzed, study outcomes, and researchers’ challenges.
Results
Most studies were conducted in the USA (n = 14); focused on COVID-19 (n = 15); were a-theoretical (n = 19); and quantitative (n = 19). Most explored the themes and use of the memes available online (n = 19); compared meme variations (n = 12) by health issue, content, or participants’ group; examined meme’ effects on health outcomes (n = 1); or evaluated memes as part of a health campaign (n = 3). We summarized the studies’ limitations and key findings.
Conclusions
Memes are a promising message strategy for health promotion and education, but more research is necessary. Considering the information retrieved, we provide five specific recommendations for future research directions when studying health memes, including suggestions on the multiple health issues to address and promising theories to adopt and expand.
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