Ruth Wendt
Biographic Data
| ID | 223835 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ruth Wendt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ruth |
| FAMILY NAME | Wendt |
| SIGNATURE | WENDT R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4864-8394 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 66 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
“This didn't exist back then”
Adolescence is a critical developmental stage in which emerging mental illnesses can lead to severe lifelong consequences. Effective prevention requires open, destigmatized dialogue with and among people in their social contexts. Prior research has largely examined these contexts in isolation, focusing either on family and peer contexts or on social media, without addressing how these contexts jointly shape adolescents' perceptions. This qualitat…
The role of social norms for online prosocial & antisocial behavior among adolescents in Singapore
Although features of social media such as visibility and quantifiability might intensify processes of peer influence, there still is little systematic research on these mechanisms in the online context, especially when it comes to prosocial behavior. This study systematically investigated normative influences on adolescents’ antisocial and prosocial online behavior. We applied an extesnded version of the Theory of Normative Social Behavior to ana…
Being literate, behaving literate? A mixed-methods approach to adolescents’ algorithm literacy and behavioral strategies on social media
This article investigates the relationship between adolescents’ algorithm literacy and their behavior on social media platforms. Using a mixed-methods approach, including focus groups, a mobile diary study, and a representative survey of German adolescents aged 14–17, we identify three behavioral strategies in response to algorithmically curated content: (1) indifferent behavior, such as passive scrolling; (2) interactive behavior, including liki…
Conditionally helpful? The influence of person-, situation-, and device-specific factors on maternal smartphone use for stress coping and on coping effectiveness
Smartphones are omnipresent in the daily lives of parents and provide access to multiple resources in stressful situations. Thus, smartphones might be valuable coping tools. Previous research has mostly focused on the negative effects of parental phone use. In the present study, we investigated how mothers use smartphones for coping with stress and whether their phone use for coping is effective. We also explored factors on different levels (situ…
Do you love your phone more than your child? The consequences of norms and guilt around maternal smartphone use
Previous research mainly linked smartphone use while parenting to adverse consequences. However, smartphones also offer helpful resources for parents, especially in stressful situations. We suggested that negative norms against maternal smartphone use and associated feelings of guilt may inhibit effective smartphone use for coping with stress. In a 1-week experience sampling study with mothers of young children (N = 158), we found that more negat…
Understanding the role of participatory-moral abilities, motivation, and behavior in European adolescents’ responses to online hate
Researchers have repeatedly discussed how to strengthen supportive and pro-social responses to online hate, such as reporting and commenting. Researchers and practitioners commonly call for the promotion of media literacy measures that are believed to be positively associated with countermeasures against online hate. In this study (conducted in 2021), we examined relationships between media literacy proficiencies of (1) moral-participatory motiva…
Social Media Literacy Among Adolescents and Young Adults
When being online, young users are often confronted with insulting, hateful, or misleading messages. To handle these dark forms of participation, it is essential to equip them with resources that support their social literacy in today's complex online environments. In the present article, we deployed a previously established scale on self-perceived participatory-moral literacy and conducted a broad online survey study with 1,489 adolescents and y…
Investigating problematic social media and game use in a nationally representative sample of adolescents and younger adults
Research on addictive media use has often concentrated on only one specific form of problematic usage behaviour, making it impossible to systematically examine how different types of disordered use are related to each other and whether they have similar or different correlational characteristics. The present study focused on the co-occurrence of problematic social media use and problematic digital game use. Both constructs were measured with adap…
Social media literacy & adolescent social online behavior in Germany
The present study addresses the increased merging of adolescents’ online and social practices and provides a broad and developmental conceptualization, operationalization, and empirical investigation of social media literacy as a central resource in their everyday lives. Using a newly developed standardized instrument, the study investigated how different components of adolescents’ social media literacy (knowledge, abilities, and motivation) and …
Do smartphones and social network sites become more important when experiencing stress? Results from longitudinal data
Previous research on stress and media use mainly concentrated on between-person effects. We add to this research field by additionally assessing within-person associations, assuming that experiencing more stress than usual goes along with more nomophobia (“no-mobile-phone phobia”) and more passive and active Facebook use than usual, cross-sectionally and over time, and by exploring potential age differences. We conducted a secondary analysis of t…
Role of mothers' and fathers' Internet parenting for family climate
Within today's families, there is a growing relevance of children's Internet use as an important and conflictual educational issue, especially during early and middle adolescence. The family climate can be seen as a sensor on how well families handle such Internet-related conflicts. We extended prior research by investigating the role Internet parenting plays for the perceived family climate of 952 nuclear families using a multiactor design. More…
The Role of Online Communication in Long-Term Cyberbullying Involvement Among Girls and Boys
Täter Im Internet
Violent video games and physical aggression
Longitudinal studies investigating the relationship of aggression and violent video games are still scarce. Most of the previous studies focused on children or younger adolescents and relied on convenience samples. This paper presents data from a 1-year longitudinal study of N = 276 video game players aged 14 to 21 drawn from a representative sample of German gamers. We tested both whether the use of violent games predicts physical aggression (i.…
The Individual or the Group
Journal Article The Individual or the Group: A Multilevel Analysis of Cyberbullying in School Classes Get access Ruth Festl, Ruth Festl 1Department of Communication, University of Hohenheim, 70599, Stuttgart, Germany, 1Corresponding author: Ruth Festl; Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Michael Scharkow, Michael Scharkow 2Department of Communication, University of Hohenheim, 70599, Stuttgart, Germany, Search …
Problematic computer game use among adolescents, younger and older adults
Peer Influence, Internet use and Cyberbullying
The influence of social reference groups such as family members, classmates and friends on adolescents' attitudes and behavior has been acknowledged in research for many decades. With the increasing use of online media, cyberbullying has become a major issue in adolescence research. In this paper, we compare various forms of peer influence on cyberbullying behavior among high school students in Germany. Specifically, the impact of close friends a…
Militaristic Attitudes and the Use of Digital Games
From their beginnings until today, digital games have been a substantial part of what has been labeled the "military-entertainment complex" deeply imbued with militaristic messages and imagery. Within cultivation research, this enhanced exposure to war and militarism is supposed to be associated with the adoption of military norms and thinking. Concepts on narrative persuasion specify this relationship between certain narratives and the adoption …
Social Relations and Cyberbullying
Current research indicates that an alarming number of students are affected by cyberbullying. However, most of the empirical research has focused on psychological explanations of the phenomenon. In an explorative survey study based on the reconstruction of 2 complete school networks (NP = 408), we expand the explanation strategies of cyberbullying to higher levels of social abstraction. Using statistical and structural analysis, and visual inspec…
Social Relations and Cyberbullying
Current research indicates that an alarming number of students are affected by cyberbullying. However, most of the empirical research has focused on psychological explanations of the phenomenon. In an explorative survey study based on the reconstruction of 2 complete school networks (NP = 408), we expand the explanation strategies of cyberbullying to higher levels of social abstraction. Using statistical and structural analysis, and visual inspec…
The Individual or the Group
Journal Article The Individual or the Group: A Multilevel Analysis of Cyberbullying in School Classes Get access Ruth Festl, Ruth Festl 1Department of Communication, University of Hohenheim, 70599, Stuttgart, Germany, 1Corresponding author: Ruth Festl; Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Michael Scharkow, Michael Scharkow 2Department of Communication, University of Hohenheim, 70599, Stuttgart, Germany, Search …
Violent video games and physical aggression
Longitudinal studies investigating the relationship of aggression and violent video games are still scarce. Most of the previous studies focused on children or younger adolescents and relied on convenience samples. This paper presents data from a 1-year longitudinal study of N = 276 video game players aged 14 to 21 drawn from a representative sample of German gamers. We tested both whether the use of violent games predicts physical aggression (i.…
Role of mothers' and fathers' Internet parenting for family climate
Within today's families, there is a growing relevance of children's Internet use as an important and conflictual educational issue, especially during early and middle adolescence. The family climate can be seen as a sensor on how well families handle such Internet-related conflicts. We extended prior research by investigating the role Internet parenting plays for the perceived family climate of 952 nuclear families using a multiactor design. More…
The Role of Online Communication in Long-Term Cyberbullying Involvement Among Girls and Boys
Militaristic Attitudes and the Use of Digital Games
From their beginnings until today, digital games have been a substantial part of what has been labeled the "military-entertainment complex" deeply imbued with militaristic messages and imagery. Within cultivation research, this enhanced exposure to war and militarism is supposed to be associated with the adoption of military norms and thinking. Concepts on narrative persuasion specify this relationship between certain narratives and the adoption …
Understanding the role of participatory-moral abilities, motivation, and behavior in European adolescents’ responses to online hate
Researchers have repeatedly discussed how to strengthen supportive and pro-social responses to online hate, such as reporting and commenting. Researchers and practitioners commonly call for the promotion of media literacy measures that are believed to be positively associated with countermeasures against online hate. In this study (conducted in 2021), we examined relationships between media literacy proficiencies of (1) moral-participatory motiva…
Social Media Literacy Among Adolescents and Young Adults
When being online, young users are often confronted with insulting, hateful, or misleading messages. To handle these dark forms of participation, it is essential to equip them with resources that support their social literacy in today's complex online environments. In the present article, we deployed a previously established scale on self-perceived participatory-moral literacy and conducted a broad online survey study with 1,489 adolescents and y…
Problematic computer game use among adolescents, younger and older adults
Peer Influence, Internet use and Cyberbullying
The influence of social reference groups such as family members, classmates and friends on adolescents' attitudes and behavior has been acknowledged in research for many decades. With the increasing use of online media, cyberbullying has become a major issue in adolescence research. In this paper, we compare various forms of peer influence on cyberbullying behavior among high school students in Germany. Specifically, the impact of close friends a…
Militaristic Attitudes and the Use of Digital Games
From their beginnings until today, digital games have been a substantial part of what has been labeled the "military-entertainment complex" deeply imbued with militaristic messages and imagery. Within cultivation research, this enhanced exposure to war and militarism is supposed to be associated with the adoption of military norms and thinking. Concepts on narrative persuasion specify this relationship between certain narratives and the adoption …
Social Relations and Cyberbullying
Current research indicates that an alarming number of students are affected by cyberbullying. However, most of the empirical research has focused on psychological explanations of the phenomenon. In an explorative survey study based on the reconstruction of 2 complete school networks (NP = 408), we expand the explanation strategies of cyberbullying to higher levels of social abstraction. Using statistical and structural analysis, and visual inspec…
Täter Im Internet
Violent video games and physical aggression
Longitudinal studies investigating the relationship of aggression and violent video games are still scarce. Most of the previous studies focused on children or younger adolescents and relied on convenience samples. This paper presents data from a 1-year longitudinal study of N = 276 video game players aged 14 to 21 drawn from a representative sample of German gamers. We tested both whether the use of violent games predicts physical aggression (i.…
The Individual or the Group
Journal Article The Individual or the Group: A Multilevel Analysis of Cyberbullying in School Classes Get access Ruth Festl, Ruth Festl 1Department of Communication, University of Hohenheim, 70599, Stuttgart, Germany, 1Corresponding author: Ruth Festl; Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Michael Scharkow, Michael Scharkow 2Department of Communication, University of Hohenheim, 70599, Stuttgart, Germany, Search …
The Role of Online Communication in Long-Term Cyberbullying Involvement Among Girls and Boys
Role of mothers' and fathers' Internet parenting for family climate
Within today's families, there is a growing relevance of children's Internet use as an important and conflictual educational issue, especially during early and middle adolescence. The family climate can be seen as a sensor on how well families handle such Internet-related conflicts. We extended prior research by investigating the role Internet parenting plays for the perceived family climate of 952 nuclear families using a multiactor design. More…
Do smartphones and social network sites become more important when experiencing stress? Results from longitudinal data
Previous research on stress and media use mainly concentrated on between-person effects. We add to this research field by additionally assessing within-person associations, assuming that experiencing more stress than usual goes along with more nomophobia (“no-mobile-phone phobia”) and more passive and active Facebook use than usual, cross-sectionally and over time, and by exploring potential age differences. We conducted a secondary analysis of t…
Investigating problematic social media and game use in a nationally representative sample of adolescents and younger adults
Research on addictive media use has often concentrated on only one specific form of problematic usage behaviour, making it impossible to systematically examine how different types of disordered use are related to each other and whether they have similar or different correlational characteristics. The present study focused on the co-occurrence of problematic social media use and problematic digital game use. Both constructs were measured with adap…
Social media literacy & adolescent social online behavior in Germany
The present study addresses the increased merging of adolescents’ online and social practices and provides a broad and developmental conceptualization, operationalization, and empirical investigation of social media literacy as a central resource in their everyday lives. Using a newly developed standardized instrument, the study investigated how different components of adolescents’ social media literacy (knowledge, abilities, and motivation) and …
Conditionally helpful? The influence of person-, situation-, and device-specific factors on maternal smartphone use for stress coping and on coping effectiveness
Smartphones are omnipresent in the daily lives of parents and provide access to multiple resources in stressful situations. Thus, smartphones might be valuable coping tools. Previous research has mostly focused on the negative effects of parental phone use. In the present study, we investigated how mothers use smartphones for coping with stress and whether their phone use for coping is effective. We also explored factors on different levels (situ…
Do you love your phone more than your child? The consequences of norms and guilt around maternal smartphone use
Previous research mainly linked smartphone use while parenting to adverse consequences. However, smartphones also offer helpful resources for parents, especially in stressful situations. We suggested that negative norms against maternal smartphone use and associated feelings of guilt may inhibit effective smartphone use for coping with stress. In a 1-week experience sampling study with mothers of young children (N = 158), we found that more negat…
Understanding the role of participatory-moral abilities, motivation, and behavior in European adolescents’ responses to online hate
Researchers have repeatedly discussed how to strengthen supportive and pro-social responses to online hate, such as reporting and commenting. Researchers and practitioners commonly call for the promotion of media literacy measures that are believed to be positively associated with countermeasures against online hate. In this study (conducted in 2021), we examined relationships between media literacy proficiencies of (1) moral-participatory motiva…
Social Media Literacy Among Adolescents and Young Adults
When being online, young users are often confronted with insulting, hateful, or misleading messages. To handle these dark forms of participation, it is essential to equip them with resources that support their social literacy in today's complex online environments. In the present article, we deployed a previously established scale on self-perceived participatory-moral literacy and conducted a broad online survey study with 1,489 adolescents and y…
“This didn't exist back then”
Adolescence is a critical developmental stage in which emerging mental illnesses can lead to severe lifelong consequences. Effective prevention requires open, destigmatized dialogue with and among people in their social contexts. Prior research has largely examined these contexts in isolation, focusing either on family and peer contexts or on social media, without addressing how these contexts jointly shape adolescents' perceptions. This qualitat…
The role of social norms for online prosocial & antisocial behavior among adolescents in Singapore
Although features of social media such as visibility and quantifiability might intensify processes of peer influence, there still is little systematic research on these mechanisms in the online context, especially when it comes to prosocial behavior. This study systematically investigated normative influences on adolescents’ antisocial and prosocial online behavior. We applied an extesnded version of the Theory of Normative Social Behavior to ana…
Being literate, behaving literate? A mixed-methods approach to adolescents’ algorithm literacy and behavioral strategies on social media
This article investigates the relationship between adolescents’ algorithm literacy and their behavior on social media platforms. Using a mixed-methods approach, including focus groups, a mobile diary study, and a representative survey of German adolescents aged 14–17, we identify three behavioral strategies in response to algorithmically curated content: (1) indifferent behavior, such as passive scrolling; (2) interactive behavior, including liki…
Psychology (15 works) · Impact of Technology on Adolescents (13 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Child Development and Digital Technology (11 works) · Developmental psychology (10 works) · Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression (9 works) · Social media (8 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Social Media and Politics (6 works) · The Internet (5 works)