Do social media foster or curtail adolescents’ empathy? A longitudinal study
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Text messaging with friends helps promote greater empathy.
“Earlier research on adolescents also suggests that text messaging with friends helps promote greater empathy (Vossen & Valkenburg, 2016).”
From Young Adult Adaptability to the Social Challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Protective Role of Friendships (2022) · cites this paper as Vossen & Valkenburg, 2016
Section 4.1 reports that adolescents who used social media more frequently improved in affective and cognitive empathy over time. But section 2.2.1 combines social-network-site use with instant-messaging use in its measure; the study does not establish that messaging friends specifically produced the improvement. Page numbers were not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredVossen and Valkenburg (2016) study results demonstrated a connection between the use of social media and a gradual enhancement of cognitive and affective empathy over time.
“Vossen and Valkenburg (2016) study results demonstrated a connection between the use of social media and a gradual enhancement of cognitive and affective empathy over time (2016).”
From Adolescent Social Media Use and Emotional Intelligence: A Systematic Review (2025) · cites this paper as Vossen and Valkenburg (2016)
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- Authors
- Vossen, H. G. M., & Valkenburg, P. M.
- Affiliations
- Utrecht University (NL)
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Vossen, Helen G.M.
- Venue
- Computers in Human Behavior
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-10
- Volume
- 63
- Pages
- 118-124
- ISSN
- 0747-5632 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2407390883
- Cited by
- 170
- References
- 55
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 12
- FWCI
- 33.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Computers in Human Behavior (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (publishedVersion)
- Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- European Research Council
- European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)
- ERC (AdG09 249488-ENTCHILD)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
- Keywords
- social media use, empathy, adolescents, cognitive empathy, affective empathy, psychosocial development, longitudinal change
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