Maritza Vasquez Reyes and Dr. Caitlin Elsaesser presented a paper entitled “Girls and Young Women’s Perceptions on the Role of Gender and Social Media Conflict Implicated in Violence” at ResilienceCon, an international conference that offers opportunities to interact with colleagues who are interested in strengths-based approaches to understanding, preventing, and responding to violence and other adversities.

Other presenters included Dr. Desmond Upton Patton, Columbia University; Dr. Jocelyn R. Smith Lee, University of North Carolina, Greensboro; and Jacqueline Santiago, COMPASS Youth Collaborative.

Abstract

Social media conflict plays a growing role in youth violence; however, little research has documented how girls and young women experience social media conflict and offline violence. Our study uses focus group data to examine how gendered dynamics and perceptions shape online conflict. We draw on focus group data (N=24) with adolescent girls and young women living in historically disenfranchised neighborhoods in Hartford. The twenty-four participants presented their perspectives on how social media conflict affects their experience with offline violence, as well as coping strategies.

This study is among the first to center girls’ and young women’s own perspectives on how social media conflict is implicated in youth violence, and to highlight processes of resilience in their experience coping with such conflict. While previous studies with males suggest that females play a marginal role in social media conflict and violence, our study reinforces emerging work with males that suggests that young women have significant, not peripheral, experiences of social media conflict and escalation to violence. Our findings suggest a novel mechanism by which young women become involved in social media conflict and have high relevance to public health initiatives aiming to bolster girls and young women’s resilience.