Karen V. Jenkins' Proposal Defense
PhD student Karen V. Jenkins will present her proposal, “The Avoidance Paradox: Adolescent Health Information Behavior in an AI-Mediated Digital Ecosystem.” Jenkins’s dissertation committee includes Professor and Interim Dean Emily Knox (Chair), Professor Denise Agosto, Associate Professor Cynthia D’Angelo, and Assistant Professor Madelyn R. Sanfilippo.
Abstract
In 2012, thirteen-year-old typed health symptoms into a search engine. In 2018, that search moved to TikTok. By 2024, adolescents are having full conversations with AI chatbots about reproductive health and mental wellness, receiving clinician-toned responses without clinical accountability. Existing frameworks for adolescent health information behavior have not kept pace with this structural shift. This study investigates how adolescents aged 12–18 seek, evaluate, trust, and avoid health information in an AI-mediated digital landscape in which chatbots, algorithmic feeds, and peer-shared content have replaced search engines as the primary information intermediaries. Using a convergent mixed-methods design across two charter schools in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the study tests whether health information seeking behavior is shaped less by eHealth literacy alone and more by the compounding effects of social trust bias, AI label perception, and information avoidance functioning as an affective barrier, even when access and literacy are already present. Two investigator-developed constructs, the Social Trust Bias Subscale and AI label trust items, are introduced to capture what existing credibility metrics miss: When access and literacy are present and adolescents still disengage, avoidance is doing something. Understanding precisely what this is through an adolescent survey, adolescent focus group, and adult key informant interviews is what this study is designed to reveal.
Zoom info:
Meeting ID: 738 501 6996
Passcode: EK1998
Questions? Contact Karen V. Jenkins.