The impacts of social media on the wellbeing of Pacific youth in New Zealand- A literature review: Social Media impacts on Pacific youth

Abstract

Introduction

Digital Discipline delivers training workshops to young Pacific people and their families, helping them to develop their online literacy and building their awareness of social media harm. Digital Discipline partnered with Moana Connect to develop and carry out an evaluation of these workshops. The first stage of the evaluation process consisted of: a literature review collating existing evidence about the impacts of social media on the wellbeing of Pacific youth; measures used to evaluate these impacts, and services to support online safety/wellbeing currently available in Aotearoa.

Methods

The review was conducted using a critical-integrative approach and literature was gathered from across a range of academic databases. Results were filtered by date (2012-2022), location (Australia/New Zealand/Oceania), and text type (Journal articles/Reports) then selected for inclusion based on their relevance to the New Zealand context; Pacific peoples and social media; migrant or indigenous peoples and social media; youth and social media; and/or social media impacts. A range of local sources were also reviewed to gather relevant grey literature.

Results

Few studies included a Pacific cohort, and only one focused on Pacific youth. Available evidence indicated that – in addition to facing a range of more general harms - Pacific youth are more likely to experience cyberbullying/online social exclusion, receive requests for sexually explicit material, have their personal information posted without permission, and accidentally encounter disturbing material than their peers from other ethnic groups, as well as being more likely to download viruses/malware. Limited positive impacts were noted - such as access to avenues for challenging media bias and opportunities to maintain transnational connections - and there was evidence that cultural norms and values may play a protective role, offsetting participation in certain risky online behaviors. No measurements of social media impact that had been validated for use with Pacific peoples were found and only one additional Pacific-specific online safety/wellbeing resource.

Conclusion

While evidence points towards some concerns/benefits relating to social media use amongst Pacific youth, more research is needed. This could be supported through the development of a tailored and validated tool to assess the impact of social media use on the holistic wellbeing of Pacific youth, which would in turn provide guidance regarding where intervention/support is most needed.