Digital Social Environments and the Development of Internalizing Psychopathology in Adolescence

Adolescence is a critical developmental period marked by substantial social, cognitive, and emotional change. It is also the period when many internalizing disorders, including depression and anxiety, first emerge. At the same time, adolescents are increasingly embedded in digital social environments such as social media platforms, messaging applications, and online peer networks. These environments shape how young people interact with peers, experience social evaluation, and construct their identities. As a result, digital contexts are now central to adolescents’ social worlds and may influence mental health in both beneficial and harmful ways.

A growing body of research indicates that the relationship between digital experiences and internalizing symptoms is complex and bidirectional. Certain digital interactions may increase vulnerability through processes such as social comparison, exposure to cybervictimization, or heightened sensitivity to peer feedback. Conversely, adolescents experiencing anxiety or depressive symptoms may engage with digital platforms in distinct ways, including increased online social monitoring, withdrawal from offline interactions, or seeking support in online communities. Understanding these dynamics requires a developmental psychopathology perspective that considers how individual vulnerabilities, social contexts, and developmental processes interact across adolescence, shaping both digital behavior and mental health trajectories over time.

The goal of this Research Topic is to advance understanding of bidirectional connections between digital social environments and the development, maintenance, and trajectories of internalizing psychopathology during adolescence. This collection aims to bring together interdisciplinary research that examines both risk and resilience pathways linking adolescents’ digital experiences with mental health outcomes.

• This Research Topic welcomes empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions that investigate the role of digital social environments in adolescent internalizing psychopathology.
• Submissions may address how digital experiences contribute to the onset or progression of internalizing symptoms, how adolescents’ mental health shapes their digital engagement, and the mechanisms underlying vulnerability and resilience in online contexts.
• Studies using longitudinal designs, multimethod approaches, and innovative digital measurement strategies are particularly encouraged.
• Contributions that consider developmental timing, individual differences, and contextual factors (e.g., peer, family, and cultural influences) are especially welcome.
• Collectively, this Research Topic aims to deepen understanding of developmental pathways to adolescent mental health outcomes. It also seeks to inform prevention, intervention, and public health efforts in an increasingly digital social landscape, with attention to both the risks and potential benefits of adolescents’ online social experiences.

If you were not directly invited by the Topic Editors but wish to submit, you are welcome to do so; however, please contact us at childandadolescentpsychiatry@frontiersin.org before submitting and wait for our confirmation that your manuscript is within scope.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Adolescent internalizing psychopathology, Digital social interaction, Online peer processes, Cybervictimization, Social media and mental health, Developmental risk and resilience

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.