Girls in the Digital World is a research project designed to explore how to facilitate participatory action research (PAR) with children. Up to 10 participants between the ages of 10-12 who are girls (cis or trans) or gender diverse individuals will attend a virtual summer “camp,” where they will work with the adult facilitators to learn about research in a fun and engaging way. The participants will discuss their experiences with social media and choose a related issue to research. Following the summer “camp,” the adult facilitators will meet with the participants in three additional virtual sessions to help support the completion of their self-selected research projects. Once their projects are complete, the participants will decide if and how they would like to share their research (i.e., a virtual presentation to families and/or peers).

This research project involves a 5-day virtual summer “camp” and three virtual follow-up sessions with the research team (to be scheduled in collaboration with the participants) to support participants’ research projects. All training and technology will be provided for participants to enable them to complete a research project on an issue related to social media. Meetings will be held August 15th to 19th, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm with an hour break from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm. Parents or guardians will be required to attend an initial meeting with a research team member to discuss the project details and after that meeting they will be updated periodically via an email newsletter.

Participants will be compensated with a new iPad and headphones with microphone, along with all the necessary software and applications for the project.