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Who I am: Dr. Laura Marciano, Research Associate at the Center for Health and Happiness, Department of Social and Behavioral sciences, Harvard T.H. School of Public Health
What I did: Earlier this year, the HappyB2.0 project teamed up with four social media creators (Khalida Himes, Lindsay Fleming, James Taylor Jr., and Rachel Havekost from the Center for Health Communication’s creator program) to recruit teens to participate in a study about how in-person versus social media interactions can affect teen loneliness, happiness, and thriving. The creators posted about the HappyB2.0 project on their Instagram pages:
- Example 1 by Rachel Havekost
- Example 2 by Khalida Himes
- Example 3 by James Taylor Jr.
- Example 4 by Khalida Himes
Why it matters: This is the first example (that we know of) where teens are being recruited for a study in partnership with social media creators. Partnering with creators allows us to get information to teens in the digital spaces that they already spent their time, which helps us to (1) improve teen awareness about how social media use can impact their mental health and (2) improve recruitment for our study.
What I learned: Partnering with content creators taught our project team how to be more flexible and communicate with our audience more effectively. The partnership also fostered stronger relationships and trust among colleagues, creators, and participants. We hope that other research teams looking to do work with young populations will also consider partnering with content creators.
