La salute sui social vista dagli adolescenti italiani: pratiche quotidiane, bisogni informativi e processi di attribuzione della credibilità

Journal title SALUTE E SOCIETÀ
Author/s Francesco Vigneri, Lorenza Parisi, Arianna Bussoletti
Publishing Year 2025 Issue 2025/2 Suppl.
Language Italian Pages 18 P. 120-137 File size 276 KB
DOI 10.3280/SES2025-19210
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The paper explores how Italian adolescents use social media to satisfy their health information needs. In particular, it focuses on their daily practices and the criteria they apply to assess social media content’s credibility and reliability, as well as the attribution of (dis)trust towards doctors and medicine. The study is based on a thematic analysis of 51 in-depth interviews with Italian adolescents in three Italian cities. The health topics most cited on Instagram and TikTok concern mental health, eating disorders, sexual behavior and fitness. Data shows a tendency to attribute credibility on social media through perceived competence and, in particular, authenticity: this dynamic, typical of social media, legitimizes believable knowledge, complementary to that of doctors, expressed in the form of first-person accounts by influencers and creators on health topics. Keywords: teenagers; health communication; social media practices; information needs; trust; credibility.

Keywords: adolescenti; comunicazione della salute; social media; bisogni informativi; fiducia; credibilità.

  1. Braun V., Clarke V. (2022). Conceptual and design thinking for thematic analysis. Qualitative psychology, 9(1): 3-26.
  2. Berne S., Frisén A., Kling J. (2014). Appearance-related cyberbullying: A qualitative investigation of characteristics, content, reasons, and effects. Body Image, 11(4): 527-533.
  3. Brown Z, Tiggemann M. (2016). Attractive celebrity and peer images on Instagram: Effect on women’s mood and body image. Body Image, 19: 37–43.
  4. Byron P., Albury K., Evers C. (2013). “It would be weird to have that on Facebook”: Young people’s use of social media and the risk of sharing sexual health information. Reproductive Health Matters, 21(41): 35-44. DOI: 10.1016/S09688080(13)41686-
  5. Cappelletto P., De Luca L., Taddei B., Taddei S., Nocentini A., Pisano T. (2023). COVID-19 pandemic impact among adolescents with eating disorders referred to Italian psychiatric unit. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 37(1): e12440.
  6. Chung A., Vieira D., Donley T., Tan N., Jean-Louis G., Kiely Gouley K., Seixas A. (2021). Adolescent peer influence on eating behaviors via social media: Scoping Review. J Med Internet Res, 23(6): e19697. DOI: 10.2196/1969
  7. Clavenna A, Cartabia M, Fortino I, Bonati M. (2024). Burden of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent mental health in the Lombardy Region, Italy: A retrospective database review. BMJ Paediatr Open, 8(1): e002524.
  8. Comunello F., Mulargia S., Parisi L. (2016). The ‘proper’ way to spread ideas through social media. The Sociological Review, 64(3): 515-532. DOI: 10.1111/1467-954X.1237
  9. Comunello F., Mulargia S., Parisi L. (2017). «Non guardarmi, non ti sento». Processi di sense giving nella controversia sui vaccini infantili tra gli utenti di Facebook. Problemi dell’informazione, 42(3): 431-458. DOI: 10.1445/8809
  10. Davico C., Marcotulli D., Abbracciavento G., et al. (2024). COVID-19 pandemic school disruptions and acute mental health in children and adolescents. JAMA Netw Open, 7(8): e2425829.
  11. Engel E., Gell S., Heiss R., Karsay K. (2024). Social media influencers and adolescents’ health: A scoping review of the research field. Social Science & Medicine, 340: 116387.
  12. Freeman J.L., Caldwell P.H.Y., Scott K.M. (2023). How adolescents trust health information on social media: A systematic review. Academic Pediatrics, 23 (4): 703-719.
  13. Freer A. (2020). TikTok was the most downloaded app of 2020. Business of Apps. Testo disponibile al sito: https://www.businessofapps.com/news/tiktok-was-the- most-downloaded-app-of-2020/ (15/12/2020)
  14. Gili G. (2005). La credibilità. Quando e perché la comunicazione ha successo (Vol. 167). Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino Editore.
  15. Goodyear V.A., Armour K.M, Wood H. (2019). Young people and their engagement with health-related social media: New perspectives. Sport, Education and Society, 24(7): 673-688. DOI: 10.1080/13573322.2017.142346
  16. Guo Z., Simpson E., Bernardi R. (2024). “Medfluencer: A Network Representation of Medical Influencers’ Identities and Discourse on Social Media.” 7th epiDAMIK International Workshop on Epidemiology Meets Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, Barcelona, August 26, 2024. Testo disponibile al sito: https://openreview.net/pdf?id=StgezOmzHd (19/01/2025)
  17. Henderson E.M., Keogh E., Eccleston C. (2014). Why go online when you have pain? A qualitative analysis of teenagers’ use of the Internet for pain management advice. Child Care Health Dev, 40(4): 572-579.
  18. ISTAT (2023). Cittadini e ICT Anno 2022. Testo disponibile al sito: https://www.istat.it/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/REPORT_CITTADI- NIEICT_2022.pdf (17/03/2023)
  19. Klayman J. (1995). Varieties of confirmation bias. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 32: 385-418. DOI: 10.1016/S0079-7421(08)60315-
  20. Lenhart A., Purcell K., Smith A., Zickuhr K. (2010). Social media & mobile Internet use among teens and young adults. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project.
  21. Lim M.S., Vella A., Sacks-Davis R., Hellard M.E. (2014). Young people’s comfort receiving sexual health information via social media and other sources. International Journal of STD & AIDS, 25(14): 1003-1008. DOI: 10.1177/095646241452726
  22. Lovari A. (2017). Social media e comunicazione della salute. Profili istituzionali e pratiche digitali. Milano: Guerini Scientifica.
  23. Lupton D. (2021). Young people’s use of digital health technologies in the Global North: Narrative review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(1): e18286. DOI: 10.2196/1828
  24. Marcell A.V., Halpern-Felsher B.L. (2007). Adolescents’ beliefs about preferred resources for help vary depending on the health issue. Journal of Adolescent Health, 41(1): 61-68.
  25. Martelli A., Pitti I., Volturo S. (2023). Emergency and deservingness: Young people in the Italian pandemic debate. Salute e società, 1: 101-115. DOI: 10.3280/SES2023-00100
  26. Marwick A. (2013). “They’re really profound women, they’re entrepreneurs”: Conceptions of authenticity in fashion blogging. International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM). Testo disponibile al sito: https://tiara.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/05/amarwick_fashionblogs_ICWSM_2013.pdf (19/01/2025)
  27. Post, A. (2020). TikTok in 2020: Stats, engagement, future. Testo disponibile al sito: https://socialmediadata.com/tiktok-statistics/ (13/06/2025)
  28. World Health Organization (WHO). (2005[1946]). Constitution of the World Health Organization. Testo disponibile al sito: https://apps.who.int/gb/bd/PDF/bd47/EN/constitution-en.pdf?ua=1 (10/04/2023)
  29. O’Reilly M., Dogra N., Hughes J., Reilly P., George R., Whiteman N. (2019). Potential of social media in promoting mental health in adolescents. Health Promotion International, 34(5): 981–991.
  30. O’Reilly M. (2020). Social media and adolescent mental health: The good, the bad and the ugly. Journal of Mental Health, 29(2): 200–206. DOI: 10.1080/09638237.2020.171400
  31. Parrott R. (2009). Talking about health: Why communication matters. Wiley-Blackwell.
  32. Patterson S.P., Hilton S., Flowers P., McDaid L.M. (2019). What are the barriers and challenges faced by adolescents when searching for sexual health information on the internet? Implications for policy and practice from a qualitative study. Sex Transm Infect, 95(6): 462-467.
  33. Pedrini L., Meloni S. (2024). Covid-19 pandemic and mental health among adolescents and young adults: Results from two studies conducted in North of Italy. European Psychiatry, 67(S1): S330.
  34. Plaisime M., Robertson-James C., Mejia L., Núñez A., Wolf J., Reels S. (2020). Social media and teens: A needs assessment exploring the potential role of social media in promoting health. Social Media + Society, 6(1). DOI: 10.1177/205630511988602
  35. Smahel, D., Machackova, H., Mascheroni, G., Dedkova, L., Staksrud, E., Ólafsson, K., Livingstone, S., Hasebrink, U. (2020). EU Kids Online 2020: Survey results from 19 countries. EU Kids Online.
  36. Smorti M., Milone A., Gonzalez Gonzalez J., Vitali Rosati G. (2019). Adolescent selfie: An Italian Society of Paediatrics survey of the lifestyle of teenagers. Italian Journal of Pediatrics, 45: 62.
  37. Szwed M. (2024). Would you pay an Insta-doctor a visit? Social media personal brands and young consumer perception. Journal of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour in Emerging Markets, 2: 1-14.
  38. Taylor A.S. (2022). Authenticity as performativity on social media. Berlin: Springer Nature.
  39. Zamperini A., Testoni, I., Marzini, S. (2021). Il ritiro sociale nei giovani italiani: una ricerca con professionisti della salute mentale. Salute e società, XX(2): 219-234. DOI: 10.3280/SES2021-002-S101
  40. Zhao Y., Zhang J. (2017). Consumer health information seeking in social media: A literature review. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 34(4): 268-283.

Francesco Vigneri, Lorenza Parisi, Arianna Bussoletti, La salute sui social vista dagli adolescenti italiani: pratiche quotidiane, bisogni informativi e processi di attribuzione della credibilità in "SALUTE E SOCIETÀ" 2 Suppl./2025, pp 120-137, DOI: 10.3280/SES2025-19210