Impact of Social Media on The Mental Health And Wellbeing of Young People And Children With Cancer
Rationale
As a prime stressful and traumatic event, it has been found that cancer is confirmed as an incidence of depression and anxiety in cancer patient. In addition to this, higher level of depression and anxiety often indicates poorer adherence to the diagnosis and treatment, longer stays at hospital, and lower survival rates for cancer. The development and emergence of social media have now turned the internet from a static health information source into a much more dynamic source of health communication. Hence, it has been found that social media helps to establish effective communication of health. Since they permit health messages as well as information to be immediately transmitted, they have a unique potential for health communication (Farpour et al., 2019).
In addition to this health information and data collected from social networks can also support policy making with regards to health communication. The platform of social media permits both communities and individuals to share interact and discuss various kinds of content through web-based and mobile technology (Sala et al., 2024). This eventually helps the children to overcome stress related to their health.
The prevalence of depression and stares among the children with cancer is an increasing concern across the world. Most of the caregivers have reported that using social media with regards to the cancer of their child and they reported that using social media helps them to acquire information about the treatment or diagnosis of their child. This study can be used further to provide an understanding on the benefit and challenges of using social media by children suffering from cancer.
Purpose of the study
The paper mainly aims to evaluate the impact of social media on the well-being and mental health of children and young adults suffering from cancer. The study determines whether social media helps children with cancer overcome the depression and stress caused by the incurable disease that creates mental and emotional issues for children and their families.
Research questions
- How social media helps to acquire information about cancer?
- How social media helps the young people and children overcome their stress and depression?
- What are the legal and ethical considerations related to social medias impact on children and young peoples mental health?
- How does digital social support create a major impact to promote psychological resilience among cancer patients?
Method
The study will use a cross-sectional method in order to explore the usage of social media by children and young people who are suffering from cancer along with their families. Various questionnaires will be included in this study with regards to the caregivers of young people with cancer in order to describe their preferred sites of social media, predictors of the sites of social media used, and reason for using social media with regards to the cancer experience of the children. The children who would be included in this study are suffering from different kinds of cancer and they will be selected utilizing convenience sampling. Interviews will be conducted with the users of social networks in the health centers with informed consent. Moreover, a qualitative study will be carried out in this task using secondary sources like journal articles. Sources like ResearchGate, NCBI, frontiers, springer, and ScienceDirect will be used for collecting secondary data. The symptoms of depression that will be considered for the study are self-hate, slowness, indecisiveness, thoughts of a sense of failure, pessimism, expecting blame and punishment, feeling guilt, sadness, unhappiness crying, and many more. Along with this, various case studies are chosen which will be analyzed in this task in order to illustrate the spectrum of communication and ethical issues that arise when using social media families to enter pediatric clinical space including misinformation confidentially and privacy of patients allocation of resources, questions related to mistrust and trust.
Limitations
Various limitations have been found in this study. As the study is qualitative study, this will a long process and is time consuming as the study will need to analyze various case study, secondary sources, interviews, and questionnaires and then the study will reach the actual outcome. The interpretation for this study is limited as personal knowledge and experience will influence the conclusion and observations. As qualitative research is open ended the participants will have much more control over the content of data gathered. Hence, the study will not be able to verify the outcome objectively against the case scenario stated by the participant. All of the outcomes are found to be subjective and are measured using secondary sources mainly that might lead to social desirability respondent bias and will impact the reliability of the outcome. Another important factor is that qualitative research is not represented statistically as it is considered as a perspective-based technique of research where responses provided are not measured.
Discussion
Benefits and drawbacks of using social media platform by parents and caregivers of children with cancer
Parents and caregivers are using social media increasingly in order to seek health information for children. According to (Frey et al., 2021), social media mainly permits parents to form socially and emotionally supportive communities despite several geographical barriers. It also promotes the exchange of information between caregivers who may not have otherwise connected. Using social media appears to increase social support of the patients and this consequently has an important impact on the mental health of the cancer patient. Because of high prevalence of mental stress among the children with cancer, access to various social networks helps to maximize interaction via cyberspace can be useful and considerable for treatment and prevention of their mental stress. Moreover, using social media by cancer surviving children include having a private and safe place to discuss sensitive issues gaining validation or reassurance. However, there are several major drawbacks which include finding unhealthful information regarding the post-case scenario, and group sentiment concerns which sometimes mislead people seeking information. Some parents have also described discomfort over the occasional conflict that happened between users and this leads to feeling maligned, bullied, or judged. (Nagelhout et al., 2018) Stated that the use of platforms of social media among caregivers can be considered as an effective manner to increase social support, and lower anxiety and stress related to the treatment and cancer diagnosis of the child. The study suggests that interventions based on social media platforms must be tailored potentially to caregivers of different ages.
Social media-based interventions for children with cancer
As per (Chandeying & Thongseiratch, 2021), interventions based on technology like email social media mobile applications, and web pages can help children to overcome various constraints. Interventions on the basis of technology are those which use technological platform in order to provide information therapy and support for both mental or physical health issues. Interventions that are based on early technology in the field of mental health were stated typically with minimal interactivity and those were delivered offline, requiring patients to be in specific locations to receive the intervention. Recent advancements in the context of digital technology have enabled the potential of online intervention which is defined typically as the delivery of a computerized program through the internet. Online interventions use the system of telecommunication including video conferencing emailing and text messaging in order to offer this time delivery of asynchronous and synchronous interventions. The cancer survivors might join the interventions of their own residents relying on the quality of interventions. The usage of social media platforms has soared with increased and advanced usage of mobile devices as well as broadband networks. Today, it has been identified that over half of the global population utilizes platforms of social media (Siew et al., 2022). The extensive use of social media globally has made it a prime communication tool, that supports information sharing. The potential mechanism of interventions based on social media on life quality, depressive system, and anxiety system utilizing dependency of the media system and social identity theories provides social support.
Vital role played by social support systems to tackle psychological and physical challenges
As per Galderisi et al. (2024) social support constitutes the integrative actions in relation to particular social networks incorporating emotional and material resources to assist groups that are socially vulnerable without asking for compensation. Based on the theory of social support, the strength with regards to the social support network of a person showcases a direct correlation with their capability to search for a wide range of environmental threats. Young and adolescent cancer patients are identified as falling under one kind of vulnerable population group within the healthcare sector and acquire advantages from social assistance (Galderisi et al., 2024). With the emergence of the disorder, cancer clients have to deal with negative circumstances both psychologically and physically. Zhu (2023) further specify within the disorder's advanced stages, the illness's progression can be exacerbated by psychological trauma. Noticed as the disadvantaged group within the healthcare sector, social support assists them in tackling psychological and physical challenges highlighted by their situation. Familial companionship, psychological comfort, and material are all social support facets and they function together to enhance cancer patients mental or emotional well-being. At the formal social assistance level, the scope with regard to the coverage of social insurance should be expanded by the government together with maximizing rates of participation (Zhu, 2023). Thereafter, it must actively direct cancer patients family members to offer spiritual as well as material assistance.
Mediating effects of digital social support systems in facilitating psychological resilience among vulnerable youth seeking mental health
Based on Wang et al. (2023) mediating effects examination highlights psychological resilience and digital social support took actions as a potential chain mediating impact related to social media utilizations impact on peoples mental health. Previous surveys that included primary healthcare staff during the COVID outbreak reflected that a significant influence has been provided by offline social assistance to improve the psychological resilience of participants and gradually enhanced outcomes of mental health mainly depression and anxiety. Researchers have also claimed psychological resilience as one kind of potential intrinsic personal source that takes a part in buffering the crisis of mental health that cancer causes. Specifically, when the focus is on adverse disorders like pancreatic cancer, noteworthy aspects like social security, and traditional sources of social support cannot be found appropriate (Wang et al., 2023). Sources of social assistance like friends, relatives, and families shall not hold the ability to focus on the situation of the patient.
Tan et al. (2020) mentions digital social support endogenous resilience potentially creates an impact on the mental health of patients. Outcomes further stress the fact that approaches that carry the objective to maximize the resilience of social media and digital social support can be highly effective in improving cancer patients' mental health. Strong motivation is provided to patients to actively take participation within digital group chars and support groups of social media. They are even assisted in sharing their journey on social media through text and video within content communities. Positive emotions such as humor and hope can be effectively stimulated through video creation (Farpour et al., 2019). This can also maximize a community sense and peer camaraderie among cancer clients along with releasing adverse emotions.
Implications
Social media's development and emergence have transformed the Internet into a primary health communication source from being a static health information source. Different social media categories such as micro-blogging, media sharing, social book marketing, social news, and social networking play a major role to deliver vital health-oriented data for cancer patients. They can also gather access to the development of potential health communications and allow vital health messages to get immediately transmitted. Further, this stands out as an extraordinary capability for communication. In addition, information and health data collected from various social networks further support policy-making of health communication in an effective way (Ford et al., 2021). Applying the internet necessary for cancer clients comprises 39% within developed countries followed by nearly 2.3 million globally residing with cancer utilize digital sites. The accurate data examined to assess if platforms of social media shall assist cancer clients overcome their depression and stress developed by incurable disorders (Farpour et al., 2019). This further causes adverse mental and emotional issues for patients as well as their family members. As per the current research, the main motive of utilizing social media with regard to cancer of children and youth includes delivering and receiving data from various cancer families. It also comprised garnering practical knowledge or tools to assist with the cancer treatment of their children. Community-oriented approaches like training and educational programs that emphasize cancer support and care for families shall be considered involved in gripping the essential role played by family members within cancer's recovery and care stages. Findings have reflected the opportunity considering the fact that various sites of social media deliver bidirectional information exchange, which shall assist in addressing the emotional and informational needs of caregivers (Nagelhout et al., 2018). This has been an innovative platform of interaction that has balanced some caregivers' rights by providing privacy rights.
Ethical principles, social justice elements, and legal implications applicable to the research
Ethical and legal consideration is required while carrying out extensive research review considering social medias impact on children and youths mental wellbeing and health suffering from cancer. The main motive of the entire research plan set is ensuring the research analysis showcases proper validity as well as reliability (Laryeafio & Ogbewe, 2023). To make sure these two aspects are maintained, research objectives and questions have been clearly defined along with selecting the research method for the particular research. Ethical approval from the university has been undertaken to carry forward the qualitative research. One of the primary ethical considerations that shall be considered while obtaining approval includes informed consent from participants followed by taking their signature within the consent form. But these also included the maintenance of confidentiality and privacy through the research as researchers were well-aware that all participants taking participation within the study were extremely in a vulnerable position due to their present mental health state (Ford et al., 2021). Concerning the social justice aspects, the principle of justice shall completely be followed by allowing participants within the research study receive equal and just distribution of healthcare resources to their effective application and enhancement of health. They will also be provided the similar platform to voice their health concerns and ethical and legal complexities linked with receiving suitable healthcare services.
The consent form even mentioned the key requirement of essential information sharing and coordination among all research participants in order to produce accurate research outcomes. The research analysis has further seriously taken into notice legal implications do not create a barrier on further research analysis like publication bias shall not take place as this is a serious ethical problem (Galderisi et al., 2024). This might result in calculating data results inappropriately and can hamper the available informations reliability and validity. This research plan shall not accept unpublished articles and only grey literature will be utilized to avoid the challenges associated with publication bias followed by research bias. Voluntary participation shall be highly motivated along with abiding by the beneficence ethical principle and ensure no physical harm takes place among participants while they get engaged in the research (O Sullivan et al., 2021) Lastly, the Universitys Ethical Committee together with the department of Social Sciences will hold the obligation concerning the approval of the research study.
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