Understanding youth participation in social media challenges: A scoping review of definitions, typologies, and theoretical perspectives

Social Media Challenges (SMCs) have become more diverse and seemingly more extreme, with certain dangerous challenges causing immediate harm to participants and capturing the attention of media outlets and academics. Children and adolescents are the most at-risk groups, often engaging in these challenges without fully understanding the consequences. Nevertheless, most existing research and reporting on SMCs are driven by specific cases or phenomena. Thus, we conducted a scoping literature review of 66 studies that capture the breadth of the research field. Our review provides several critical insights. First, we identify a pronounced absence of theoretical grounding in the current literature, which we attribute to a focus on single-case and exploratory studies that often lack prior theoretical reasoning. This results in scattered and inconsistent descriptions of SMCs. This underscores the urgency of establishing a unified definition and a robust conceptual framework to explain the varied nature of SMCs. Second, the existing research predominantly fixates on the negative aspects of SMCs, narrowing the scope of analysis and overlooking the diverse intents and potential positive outcomes of engaging with SMCs, especially for young individuals. We propose a consolidated conceptualization of SMCs, providing a unified definition that captures their multifaceted nature. We introduce a typology to evaluate various SMCs, their underlying intents, and potential consequences, underscoring the necessity of considering a spectrum of SMCs—spanning positive, neutral, and negative—to fully comprehend the potential benefits and risks associated with participation. Our work aims to lay a theoretical groundwork for future research and practical interventions.