How eNurture funding has helped to develop my research: Dr Aiman El Asam
Dr. Aiman El Asam, senior lecturer and researcher at Kingston University London (Psychology Department), was one of the recipients of an eNurture grant in our first funding round in 2019 for his project ‘Vulnerability, Online Lives and Mental Health: Towards a New Practice Model’. In this blog post, Aiman outlines what his team has achieved with the support from eNurture.
The past 18 months have been challenging at all levels. Endless days in lockdown and working behind computer screens made me appreciate the value of physical-social interactions with friends and family, outdoor activities, students and colleagues, and even my commute to work. Technology helped me carry on with my life, but did not stop me feeling sad, lonely and isolated.
In a way this made me relate more to young people, many of whom spend endless hours online, regardless of the pandemic. To many teens, the internet is a dominant way of life, where they make new friends, socialise, play and learn.
“Now I was experiencing online life more as young people know it.
As a researcher this has provoked many thoughts.”
While connectedness is vital to their lives, young people are also exposed to online risks (e.g. Cyberbullying, pro-anorexia and suicide related content). But do e-safety and school-based interventions help? The latter are usually delivered in one size fits all formats, that do not consider the over 2.4 million children considered as vulnerable by The Children’s Commissioner for England (2018) e.g. looked after children, young carers, those with SEND and mental health difficulties. This was a conclusion made by a study I published with my colleague Adrienne Katz in 2018 ‘Vulnerable Young People and Their Experience of Online Risks’. This study of 2988 young people developed my interest in vulnerable children’s online interactions, associated risks, social and mental health/ wellbeing. We identified a gap in this area of research, yet vulnerable children are in urgent need of help and support to lead safe and healthy lives online. With Youthworks and Internet Matters, we distilled the findings into a report for policy makers, ‘Vulnerable Children in a Digital World’, which led to the formation of the UKCIS working group for vulnerable children.
In 2019 e-Nurture sought research proposals to ‘Promote Young People’s Mental Health in a Digital World’, a theme so relevant to my research and the interests of my collaborators. We proposed to study “Vulnerability, Online Lives and Mental Health: Towards a New Practice Model”.
“This was an ambitious project and thankfully, e-Nurture saw its potential
and trusted our team to deliver it.”
Collaboration with Youthworks, and Internet Matters have significantly enhanced this project, and introduced it to the wider audience beyond academia. Our project aimed to:
Examine the relationships between mental/emotional health and digital lives (internet-related experiences) amongst children and adolescents.
Explore frontline practitioners’ opinions on digital lives/experiences of vulnerable young people relative to their mental health.
Propose a draft practice model to assist decision-making and alert users to contextual aspects of their clients’/patients’ digital lives.
Amid pandemic-induced restrictions and challenges we analysed existing survey data from 2017 (n=1,993) and collected new survey data from 2019/20 (n=15,278) from different UK locations. We explored the online safety practices and experiences of online risks, and general psychological and social wellbeing (e.g. depression, anxiety, social isolation) of 10-17year olds. Specific attention was given to vulnerable young people (e.g. looked after children, young carers, those with SEND and those with hearing or communication difficulties). We found that exposure to online risks is becoming more prevalent, vulnerable young people were more disadvantaged online in specific ways, and more likely to experience various forms of online risks. Relationships found between risks increased the chances of encountering them. Vulnerable teens experienced higher levels of psychological distress and inadequate online safety support from school and parents. Psychological distress as well as parents’ support online were found to partially explain why vulnerable young people were more likely to experience online risks.
Interviews across two different studies from practitioners e.g. social workers, psychologists, children’s services and online safety experts suggested that there is limited and fragmented awareness of young people’s risk and vulnerability online. Digital Life was not found to be fully integrated into practice. Some focus was on identifying risk and less on understanding motivation or supporting recovery. Participants lacked up-to-date and specialised training, as well as assessment tools integrating digital lives, resulting in poor cross-agency working.
Building on our existing knowledge, new findings have led to a proposed practice model, referred to as ‘Enable’; a proposed tool incorporates psychological, social and online skills to inform practitioners (e.g. social workers, psychologists and other services around children). This is yet to be formally tested and evaluated, but might meet a need for a fully inclusive tool to support practitioners and children
“e-Nurture presented a huge opportunity for me as a researcher, I was awarded a generous grant
and had access to regular workshops, and support from like-minded researchers,
practitioners, and organisations.”
Despite the pandemic and related restrictions, e-Nurture put together a number of useful talks around the digital future of mental health, youth engagement and other online supporting workshops
What have we achieved with the support from eNurture?
Our project was impactful, thanks to my team, Youthworks Consulting and Internet Matters. Research findings and messages from young people were disseminated in a number of reports. Our aim was to increase awareness among policy makers, practitioners, educators, parents and young people. We endeavoured to achieve this aim with three key public reports written by Youthworks and disseminated by Internet Matters, in addition to four academic papers:
Reports
‘In their own words, the digital lives of schoolchildren’: gives an overview of the online lives of 14,994 young people, of all abilities, in schools across the country.. https://www.internetmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Internet-Matters-CyberSurvey19-Digital-Life-Web.pdf
‘Look at Me Teens, sexting and risks’: with 6045 respondents aged 13-17, explores relationships, vulnerability and the choices young people make as they weigh up the social pressures facing them. https://www.internetmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Internet-Matters-Look-At-Me-Report-1.pdf
‘Refuge and Risk: Life Online for Vulnerable Young People’ explores vulnerable children’s experiences. It describes how the online world has become a lifeline for vulnerable children. However some are to up to seven times more likely to meet particular dangers online than their non-vulnerable peers in a sample of 14,994. https://www.internetmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Internet-Matters-Refuge-And-Risk-Report.pdf
Academic papers
El-Asam, A., Katz, A., Street, C. Nazar, N.M and Livanou, M. (2020). Children’s services for the digital age: A qualitative study into current procedures and online risks among service users. Children and Youth Services Review. Volume: 122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105872
El-Asam, A., Katz., A., Lane, R., Farooq, J.M. (Accepted, subject to small modifications). The digital lives of vulnerable young people: the role of vulnerability, e-safety and psychosocial wellbeing in explaining exposure to online risks. Children and Media.
El-Asam, A., Katz, A., Lane, R. (Accepted, subject to small modifications). The “Glaring Gap”: practitioner experiences of integrating the digital lives of vulnerable young people into practice in England. Information, Communication and Society.
El-Asam, A., Katz, A., Lane, R. (Under-Review). Psychological Distress and its mediating effect on experiences of online risks: The case for vulnerable young people. New Media and Society.
What is next?
This project, and the support of e-Nurture, paved the way for a new project sponsored by Nominet (public benefit programme). Our partners include: Youthworks, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, The Nationwide Association of Fostering Providers and a youth engagement team. We aim to further develop and evaluate our “ENABLE” programme . It will offer support and training to foster carers in their engagement with children in their care around internet-related challenges. An initial consultation with foster carers and young people will be followed by implementation of a fully evaluated training programme (ENABLE).
Dr Aiman El Asam
Kingston University London
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