Technology plays an important role in all our lives and children are increasingly more digitally literate than their parents. While technology—and social media in particular—can bring people together, it also presents risks. These risks include but are not limited to bullying, doxxing, and social isolation. Dr. Abigail Gewirtz’s interactive presentation will focus on the relationship between technology use and mental health concerns among children and youth, including tools to help parents communicate and set limits on technology use.

Dr. Gewirtz is a child psychologist, mother of four, and leading expert on helping families cope with trauma. She has devoted her career to research on how to improve outcomes and resilience in children who experience stress. Dr. Abi’s early personal experiences informed her work—including her father’s family separation as a small child during the evacuation from London at the start of World War II; her encounters living in Israel during the first Gulf War; and explaining the attacks on 9/11 to her own young children. Gewirtz is a Foundation Professor in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University and professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota. She is Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Psychology, an ex officio member of the Executive Committee of the International Union of Psychological Science, and Fellow of both the Association for Psychological Science and the American Psychological Association. She has consulted for national and international organizations including the U.S. Congress and UNICEF. She has developed award-winning parenting programs and is the author of more than 100 publications. Dr. Abi has conducted research in the United States, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, and has been invited to speak widely, in the U.S. and across the world, on parenting in times of stress.

Closed Captioning will be available once the webinar begins.