27 September 2022
Together with influencers Mo Bicep, Numidia and Ouassima Tajmout, Patti Valkenburg was guest at a theme visit about the influence of social media on youth organized by MIND US. Queen Maxima , the honorary president of MIND US, was there to speak with adolescents, influencers and scientists about the subject and she was the first to receive a road map designed by MIND US to help influencers in their contact with adolescents. More information on their (Dutch) website.
23 August 2022
In a New York Times article Matt Richtel writes about depression and anxiety among adolescents and how social media affects this. The article mentions Project AWeSome's research to argue that some adolescents are more vulnerable for the influence of social media then others. Read the New York Times article
5 July 2022
On 4 July Patti Valkenburg was invited as a guest on the current affairs program Nieuwsuur, where she was interviewed by Mariëlle Tweebeeke about 15 years of social media and how social media are affecting youth (in Dutch).
A more extensive interview was published on the Nieuwsuur website (in Dutch).
The Nieuwsuur broadcast can be viewed below.
21 June 2022
The June edition of Current Opinion in Psychology (Volume 45) is a special issue on Social Media and Well-being. It was edited by Patti Valkenburg, Ine Beyens, Adrian Meier and Mariek van den Abeelen and contains 26 excellent reviews by over 50 authors.
29 March 2022
The article "Just a Joke? Adolescents’ Preferences for Humor in Media Entertainment and Real-Life Aggression", published in Media Psychology has been awarded the 2022 Best Published Article award from the Children, Adolescents, and Media Division of ICA. The article was lead-authored by Amber van der Wal and co-authored by Loes Pouwels Jessica Piotriowski and Patti Valkenburg.
4 maart 2022
Project AWeSome receives the Outstanding Interdisciplinary Contribution Award of the Society for Research on Adolescence. AWeSome investigates adolescents, well-being and social media and was established by Patti Valkenburg (University of Amsterdam) and Loes Keijsers (Erasmus University).
8 September 2021
Patti Valkenburg completed two umbrella reviews of the effects of social media use on mental health. An umbrella review is a review of existing meta-analyses and literature reviews.
23 April 2021
The project AWeSome team presented their research results in a Spring webinar. In case you missed it, you can watch the full recording here. 
22 February 2021
The project AWeSome team presented their research results in a Winter webinar. In case you missed it, you can watch the full recording here: https://www.project-awesome.nl/the-research
1 July 2020
Do social media benefit or undermine adolescents’ well-being? Many parents, health practitioners, and scholars are concerned about the question. A new study by Project AWeSome shows that the answer is not a simple yes or no: The effect differs from adolescent to adolescent. The study is now published in Scientific Reports. Free access to the full paper is available here.
3 March 2020
The article “Child’s Play? Assessing the Bidirectional Longitudinal Relationship between Gaming and Intelligence in Early Childhood”, published in the Journal of Communication has been awarded the 2020 best published article award from the Children, Adolescents, and Media Division of ICA. The article was lead-authored by Karin Fikkers and co-authored by Jessica Piotriowski and Patti Valkenburg.
13 February 2020
The public report by Project AWeSome is now also available in English. Click here to read it.
17 December 2019
Jim Jansen interviewed Patti Valkenburg about her "Eureka!" moment. The article appeared in the December edition of New Scientist and in the AD newspaper on 17 December.
The Eureka! articles by Jim Jansen are also combined in a booklet. Read the article here.
3 December 2019
Posting. Scrolling. Apping. Snapping. We know they do it, but how do they feel when doing this?
To answer their questions, Project AWeSome, lead by Patti Valkenburg conducted a survey with nearly 1000 youth (aged 14 and 15) living in the Netherlands. Their public report of this research - Posten, scrollen, appen en snappen - released today, reflects the most current information we have about Dutch teens and their social media environment. A copy of this report (available in Dutch) is available here.
For the UvA press release click here
3 October 2019
On Wednesday 2 October the award ceremony for the yearly Spinoza and Stevin prizes took place at the Koninklijke Schouwburg in The Hague. The minister of Education, Culture and Science, Ingrid van Engelshoven, was present to hand out the awards to the four Spinoza and two Stevin laureates. As a former Spinoza laureate, Patti Valkenburg was invited by NWO, the Dutch National Science Foundation, to act as master of ceremony at the celebration.
Below, a picture of Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven (left), Professor Mirjam van Praag (President VU University), and Patti Valkenburg.
More information on the Spinoza and Stevin prizes and the 6 laureates, can be found on the website of NWO:https://www.nwo.nl/onderzoek-en-resultaten/programmas/spinozapremie
A Romenian version of Patti Valkenburg's book Plugged in- How media attract and affect youth is now available.
The entire book is available here.
2 April 2019
Project AWeSome, Patti Valkenburg's new research project now has a website. Please visit: http://www.project-awesome.nl for more info.
21 Januari 2019
Patti Valkenburg has been elected as a Fellow in of the Association for Psychological Science (APS). The APS is the leading international organization dedicated to advancing scientific psychology across disciplinary and geographic borders.
22 September 2018
Why is it that the use of social media makes some adolescents feel happy while leaving others feeling blue? This week Project AWeSome, a new interdisciplinary collaboration between the Universities of Amsterdam and Tilburg, officially kicked off. The project’s aim is to answer this and other questions related to the effects of adolescents’ social media use on their wellbeing.
