Black Protection: Black Social Media Competency and Urban, Black Adolescents on Social Media
National Louis University
How they used Delve
A clinical psychology doctoral candidate at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology at National Louis University uploaded transcripts of four focus groups and four individual interviews with 21 Black adolescents in Chicago and Indianapolis into Delve for open, inductive coding in a reflexive thematic analysis of Black social media competency.
“Following data familiarization, transcripts were uploaded into Delve qualitative analysis software to support data organization, after which open, inductive coding was conducted by reviewing each segment to capture the participants’ interpretations and reflections in their responses.”
- Field
- clinical psychology; adolescent racial identity and social media
- Data
- 4 focus groups (2-7 participants each) and 4 individual interviews (30-45 minutes) with 21 Black adolescents in grades 7-12 recruited from two urban Midwestern schools and after-school programs in Chicago and Indianapolis, plus demographic and social-media-use questionnaires
- Approach
- Reflexive thematic analysis within phenomenological and ecological frameworks; Josselson’s relational approach to familiarization; seven themes and 11 subthemes; a meta-matrix (Wendler 2001) combining demographics and field notes
- Data types
- Focus groups, Interviews
Abstract
While urban, Black adolescents interact with racial identity content on social media, their identity is primarily shaped through offline experiences and later reflected or reinforced online. Through the concept of Black social media competency (B-SMC), this study examined the relationships between Black urban adolescents’ social media use, exposure to race-related content, and experiences navigating the digital environment. The study used a qualitative design, grounded in the phenomenological and ecological frameworks, with 21 adolescents recruited from two urban, Midwestern schools and programs to participate in semi-structured interviews, and data were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify patterns in how the participants engaged with and interpreted digital content. Findings from this study indicated the participants demonstrated three different analytical groupings of B-SMC: high B-SMC, characterized by intentional Black-centered engagement; emerging B-SMC, with mixed interpretations; and low B-SMC, associated with avoidant or entertainment-focused use that shaped how they processed racialized experiences online. Participants in the high B-SMC group demonstrated stronger critical reflection and racial identity development. Across all groups, participants indicated protective factors, such as family, peers, and cultural socialization, supported the development of resilience. As such, B-SMC functions as an additional protective process that enables adaptive navigation of online racial content. Implications include that clinicians should assess adolescents’ digital environments and incorporate culturally responsive, strength-based interventions that promote identity development and effective coping with racialized experiences.
Citation
Taylor A Williams (2026). Black Protection: Black Social Media Competency and Urban, Black Adolescents on Social Media. Digital Commons@NLU (National Louis University).