We explored adolescents' (12‐ to 18‐year‐olds; n = 51) awareness of their audience and subsequent self‐presentation practices on Facebook and Instagram through focus group discussions. Findings suggest that teens, who are developmentally able to perceive a situation from the third‐person perspective and who value peer approval, purposefully share content to appear interesting, well liked, and attractive. Some teens invested great effort into posting by these norms, even asking their friends to help; however, this was more common among girls. Older teens especially discussed taking the perspective of their audience when deciding what to post, which is consistent with the finding that perspective taking continues to develop throughout adolescence. These findings suggest that perspective taking skills and need for peer approval influence self‐presentation online.
Research on adolescent texting has largely focused on whether the frequency of texting is associated with well-being. Whether the motives for texting is associated with well-being is not well known. We surveyed 130 young adolescents (Mage = 12.41 years) and identified user-clusters based on their motives for texting. We then examined whether the clusters were associated with phone habits that may affect health and learning (e.g., phone placement when sleeping). Participants were asked how often they texted someone when they were excited, proud, frustrated, angry, anxious, sad, needed help with homework, wanted to make plans, and needed advice [0 (never) to 4 (always)]. Using k-means clustering, we identified six clusters. On one end of the continuum were Frequent-Texters and Positive-Frequent-Texters. Frequent-Texters texted often for all purposes and Positive-Frequent-Texters frequently texted for all purposes except expressing negative emotions. On the other end of the continuum were Selective-Texters and Positive-Selective-Texters. Selective-Texters rarely texted for any reason and Positive-Selective-Texters rarely texted except for expressing positive emotions. In between were the Moderate-Texters and the Positive-Practical-Moderate-Texters. Moderate-Texters texted less frequently than Frequent-Texters and more frequently than Selective-Texters for all purposes. Positive-Practical-Moderate-Texters texted more frequently than Moderate-Texters for positive emotions and for practical reasons. Clusters differed by gender, texting experience, and Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). Frequent-Texters started texting at a marginally younger age than Selective-Texters, had high FOMO scores, and were all girls. Clusters also differed in their phone habits. For instance, when sleeping, Frequent-Texters were more likely than other groups to have their phones on or next to the bed. When doing homework, Selective-Texters were less likely to keep their phones on or near them. Interestingly, Positive-Frequent-Texters were more likely to have the ringer on or to have their phone on vibrate while doing homework, but not more likely to keep their phones nearby. Given that texting is a common communication method, it is important to understand the heterogeneity of reasons why youth text and how those reasons relate to phone habits.
Communication through social networking platforms is central to the social experience of today's emerging adults. In this study, we examined associations between emerging adults' off-line social functioning (i.e., social skills and social anxiety) and online interactions on the social networking platform Facebook. A novel Facebook application was developed to systematically capture Facebook interactions of 92 students (59% female; Mage = 18.57 years). Trained coders rated online language for content related to social interactivity and emotional valence. Self-report questionnaires measured social skills and social anxiety. Endorsement of higher social skills was associated with posts more frequently referencing existing off-line relationships, initiating interactions specific to an online context, and referencing both oneself and others positively. Ratings of higher social anxiety were associated with posts more frequently initiating interactions online and posts praising/supporting other users. Study methodology highlights the feasibility of capitalizing on novel technology to better understand links between off-line and online interactions.
For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types.
