Youth Well-Being by Design: Integrating Research, Critical Perspectives, and Innovation

— —

Carrie James Mizuko Ito

Youth Well-Being by Design

Name: Youth Well-Being by Design
Price: 150 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9780262052542

Integrating Research, Critical Perspectives, and Innovation

Carrie James, Mizuko Ito

$150

Paperback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

QTY:

English

MIT Press
19 May 2026

Society & culture: general

An edited collection with fresh approaches to tech and youth well-being that go beyond blame and simplistic solutions.

The relationship between technology use and youth well-being has been a topic of concern-and contention-for some time. The adolescent mental health crisis has amplified the debate to a fever pitch. But the relationship between technology use and well-being can't be reduced to the question of whether social media and other technologies are good or bad. Finding effective solutions needs to be grounded in the broader and diverse realities of young people's lives. Youth Well-Being by Design, edited by Carrie James and Mizuko Ito, shifts the conversation in productive directions, to move beyond the unproductive finger-pointing at tech, technologically determinist narratives, and fixation on sweeping, one-size-fits-all solutions that often do more harm than good.

The collection offers essential research insights, critical perspectives, and design frameworks supportive of youth well-being in a technology-rich world. Essays offer insights from developmental science and youth development, sociocultural perspectives, well-being research, dignity theory, sociology, psychology, and community organizing. Contributors make the case for youth-centered and community-based approaches, methods, and measures for research and design including participatory design, critical race theory, and critical humanizing digital literacies. Qualitative data (including case studies) provide robust descriptions of youth perspectives and experiences, as well as promising pedagogies and methods for taking youth- and agency-centered approaches to designing for youth well-being.

By: Carrie James, Mizuko Ito
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 369g
ISBN: 9780262052542
ISBN 10: 0262052547
Pages: 348
Publication Date: 19 May 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Carrie James is Codirector of Project Zero and Managing Director of the Center for Digital Thriving at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is the coauthor of Behind Their Screens and author of Disconnected (both MIT Press). Mizuko Ito is Professor in Residence and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Chair in Digital Media and Learning at the University of California, Irvine, and Director of the Connected Learning Lab. She is a coeditor of Algorithmic Rights and Protections for Children and coauthor of Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out (both MIT Press).