VIPPSTAR: Visually Impaired children and adolescents: bridging the gap with Personalized Prevention Strategies, Tools, Approaches, and Resources
The major objective of VIPPSTAR is the set-up of a personalized prevention and intervention digital platform to assist children with visual impairment in their development. The project is coordinated the University Degli Studi Di Brescia, and more than 15 European partner universities are involved. As part of the Belgian consortium, together with UZ Leuven and the Psychology and Development in Context Department, we are currently exploring social media use of youth with visual impairment, and how this relates to their body image and identity development. A multi-method approach will be used. With qualitative interviews, we will explore experiences of youth with visual impairment with social media. With a 2-week daily diary study, we will assess daily relations between social media use and body image states among youth with visual impairment. With a randomized controlled trial, the effectiveness of an online intervention program will be tested.
The project is funded by Horizon Europe. PhD student Esmée Mooren is currently working on the project. I am her co-promotor, together with Prof. Schreurs, Prof. Luyckx, and Prof. Ortibus (all KU Leuven).
Sexuality, Technology, and Relationships in the Virtual Era (STRIVE)
I joined this project as postdoctoral researcher of Prof. Maheux’ SEA Lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prof. Kotiuga (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières) is co-PI. The purpose of the STRIVE study is to understand how young adults’ sexual and relational experiences are related to their well-being and health. Data Collection with young adult participants in the USA between ages 18-21 was conducted in Spring 2024.
Putting Porn Use Into Perspective: Investigating the Potential Positive Role of Pornography in Youth’s Sexuality development
Research has primarily applied a harm-focused perspective to examine the effects of adolescents’ pornography use. To overcome this negativity bias in the field, recent voices in sexology and communication literature have called for the exploration of pornography’s positive potential in youth’s sexual socialization. As a response to these calls, this project theorizes the Adolescents, Pornography, and Positive Sexuality (APPS) Model that integrates sexual media effects theories with positive media psychology and sexology literature. The APPS model will be tested using the most robust methods. New concepts will be conceptualized and operationalized by combing cognitive interviews with quantitative research (i.e., cross-sectional survey and content analysis). Further, the fluctuating impact of pornography uses on adolescents’ positive sexuality will be studied in a five-day diary study.
The project received funding from FWO. I serve as a co-promotor of a PhD student Thi Willems, together with Prof. Vandenbosch and Prof. Eggermont (KU Leuven).
Exploring the Role of Social media in the Development of Youth with Visible Differences
Most academics agree that social media use has small, yet consistent effects, in the development of young people without visible differences. Yet, these studies have neglected the substantial group of young individuals that have visible differences. Visible differences refer to having a scar, mark, injury, or medical condition that results in a socially undesirable impact on a person’s physical appearance (e.g., psoriasis, cleft lip, or burns). This project will explore social media’s role in these young people’s development. The project will provide better understandings of social media effects among a group of social media users who are especially challenged in their maturation.
The project received funding from KU Leuven. Ph.D. student Dedecker is currently working on the project. I am her co-promotor, together with Prof. Schreurs and Prof. Vandenbosch (KU Leuven).
Introducing a Content Heterogeneity Perspective to the Field of Communication Science
In my research, I strive to move away from the monolithic approach commonly used in communication science, and instead recognize the co-occurrence of content in digital media that can either be beneficial (e.g., prosocial content) or harmful (e.g., stigmatizing comments). This has led to the development of the Heterogeneous Content Processing (HCP) model, which provides a theoretical framework for understanding how individuals with varying characteristics process and respond to heterogeneous content in televised narratives. Additionally, through qualitative, in-depth interviews, I have explored how children and young adults perceive contradictory messages about beauty in the social media environment and how they experience such conflicting content. In my experimental research, I have examined how youth interpret exclusively positive, negative, and heterogeneous content related to appearance on television and how this affects their body image outcomes. Moreover, through a two-week daily diary study, I investigated the daily co-occurrence of body positivity and idealized appearance content on children’s social media, and how this influences their body image states. Currently, I am expanding my focus on content heterogeneity to include other areas, such as sexuality, climate change, gender politics, and racism.
Chelly Maes, Ph.D. 