Fostering Digital Life Skills Through Social Media With Adolescents in 6 German States: Protocol for an Accessibility Study According to the RE-AIM Framework

Abstract

Background: Social media is essential in the lives of adolescents, with 97% of US teenagers engaging daily. While it facilitates communication, learning, and identity development, it also poses risks like harmful content exposure and psychological distress, particularly for adolescents in their critical developmental stage. Teaching digital life skills innovatively counters these risks, adapting traditional competencies such as decision-making, problem-solving, creative and critical thinking, communication, interpersonal skills, self-awareness, empathy, and emotional and stress management to digital challenges.

Objective: This study evaluates the accessibility of the "leduin" program, a novel intervention designed to impart digital life skills through Instagram. The program aims to leverage social media's educational potential, focusing on effective strategies to engage adolescents. Emphasizing accessibility is crucial, as it determines the program's overall impact.

Methods: The leduin program, developed through intervention mapping, applies behavior change techniques via social media for 9th and 10th graders. It is a 14-week spaced learning curriculum with daily sessions <5 minutes. Emphasizing the "reach" aspect of the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance (RE-AIM) model, the recruitment targets diverse educational settings across 6 German states, aiming for inclusivity. Recruitment will involve schools, youth centers, and therapeutic facilities. The study seeks at least 128 participants, a calculated minimum to detect medium-sized effects in the quasi-experimental design and explore varying engagement levels and program responses. Data collection includes preintervention, postintervention, and 6-month follow-up surveys, using multilevel regression, latent growth models, and qualitative analysis to extensively assess reach and gain first insights on effectiveness, acceptance, implementation, and maintenance. The study aims to reveal key factors influencing program participation and interaction; a detailed analysis of engagement patterns will reveal the effectiveness of the recruitment strategies and barriers to participation. Additionally, initial indications of the program's impact on life skills, social media-related skills, health status, risk behaviors, and academic performance will be analyzed.

Results: Recruitment was planned from May 2023 until the beginning of the leduin program in October 2023. As of March 2024, we have recruited 283 participants.

Conclusions: The leduin program stands as an innovative and essential initiative in adolescent health promotion, harnessing the power of social media to teach important digital life skills. This study highlights the critical role of accessibility in the success of social media interventions. Effective adolescent engagement strategies are imperative, as they dictate the overall impact of such interventions. The insights gained from this study will be instrumental in shaping future programs, laying groundwork for a subsequent, more comprehensive cluster-randomized controlled trial. The study's design acknowledges the limitations of the current quasi-experimental approach, including the anticipated sample size and the absence of a control group, and aims to provide a foundational understanding for future research in this field.

Trial registration: Deutsches Register Klinischer Studien DRKS00032308; https://drks.de/search/de/trial/DRKS00032308.

International registered report identifier (irrid): PRR1-10.2196/51085.

Keywords: German; RE-AIM-framework; accessibility; adolescent; adolescent health; adolescents; digital life; digital skill; digitalized; empower; innovation; innovative; leduin-program; life skill; life skills; mixed-methods; prevention; social media; study protocol; teaching skill; utilization; validity.

Figure 1

Flowchart illustrating recruitment process, single-group design (1 intervention group), and points of assessment (preintervention, postintervention, and 6-month follow-up surveys). M-V: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania; NRW: North Rhine-Westphalia.