Dr April Ward, a graduate of the doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Canterbury Christ Church University, gave a presentation on her doctoral research at the Ofcom children’s media literacy event held in central London on 23rd January 2018.

Ofcom, the Office of Communications, is the UK government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom.

Dr Ward, Clinical Psychologist in the Mother and Infant Mental Health service, Kent and Medway NHS Trust presented on her recent research which was conducted as part of her doctorate in Clinical Psychology under the supervision of Linda Hammond, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Principal Lecturer and Director, DClinPsychol.

April spoke about findings from her research which involved one-to-one interviews and focus groups with 15 adolescents (aged 12-17 years old) that were designed to explore the motivations underlying their use of social media and its impact on their developing self-esteem. In particular, April gave an assessment of what this study tells us about how adolescents cope with negative social media experiences and what techniques they adopt to mitigate negative experiences and preserve self-esteem.