Internet use and adolescent development: A conceptual model integrating behavioral and contextual theories

In the digital era, adolescent development is deeply embedded in the cyber environment. Despite ongoing debate on the benefits and/or risks that Internet use brings to adolescents in empirical studies, conceptual and theoretical discussion on the influences of the intensity and modalities of Internet use is peripheral. This article integrates theoretical perspectives including neo-ecology (context-level) and co-construction (behavior-level) to contextualize interactions between adolescents' online behaviors and offline experiences in socioecological systems. Furthermore, the article proposes a model to conceptualize how multifaceted Internet use may positively and/or negatively affect multidimensional adolescent development across sociocultural contexts and individual characteristics, illustrated through the case of adolescents in rural China. This article can guide future empirical research and inform practice in social services.