Elizabeth Burgess Dowdell, PhD

Professor and Coordinator of Undergraduate Research | M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing Villanova University

  • Villanova PA

Elizabeth Dowdell, PhD, RN, FAAN, is an expert in the use of social media by adolescents and the health risks posed by online behaviors.

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3 min

Amid "Likes" and "Shares," Facebook Jeopardizes Children's Health and Safety

On February 4, 2004, a 19-year-old Mark Zuckerberg launched “TheFacebook.” Developed in his Harvard University residence hall, it began as a networking service for his roughly 7,000 classmates. Today, it is the most popular social media platform in existence, boasting over three billion monthly active users worldwide. Through two decades of “likes” and “shares,” Facebook has transformed how people connect, interact and think. Driving everything from dinner parties and concert outings to political campaigns and protest movements, it has frequently been celebrated for its ability to convey information, mobilize groups and galvanize change. However, it has also been criticized for its questionable content management choices, its suspect data collection practices and, perhaps most notably, its role in feeding an ever-growing mental health crisis among children and adolescents—a charge Zuckerberg refutes. Elizabeth Burgess Dowdell, PhD, RN, FAAN, is a professor in Villanova University’s M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing and an expert on the health and safety risks posed by social media. From her perspective, Facebook and platforms like it have undoubtedly played a part in heightening levels of emotional distress and physical harm among youths. “Statistically, it’s well-established in the literature that mental health issues and concerning behaviors among children have escalated tremendously,” said Dr. Dowdell. “They’re becoming sadder, more depressed and lonelier, even though they’re very connected.” To Dr. Dowdell’s point, mental health disorders began rising precipitously among young people in the years following Facebook’s launch. Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the percentage of children aged 6 to 17 years “ever having been diagnosed with either anxiety or depression” increased from 5.4% in 2003 to 8% in 2007 and 8.4% in 2011-2012. And just last year, in the era of Instagram and TikTok, Mental Health America found that 11.5% of children in the United States were struggling with severe depression, with 16% of youths aged 12 to 17 years having experienced a major depressive episode in the past 12 months. A contributing factor, according to Dr. Dowdell, is the way social media construes reality. Flooded with images, posts and videos that show hyper-idealized, rose-colored representations of life, impressionable young users can be made to feel isolated, inept or dissatisfied with their appearance. “I think adults understand that a ‘perfect’ picture is often preceded by a dozen other photos,” she said. “Kids don’t always see it like that. They focus on what makes them happy and what makes them sad—and what makes them feel sad about themselves.” Tragically, throughout the social media age, this sadness has been tied to increasing rates of suicide, self-harm and risky behavior among youths. A 2023 CDC study found that the suicide rate for children aged 10 to 14 years tripled from 2007 to 2018 (from 0.9 deaths per 100,000 to 2.9), and in 2021-2022, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children noted a 35% year-over-year increase in reports of suspected child sexual exploitation. Amid these frightening statistics, Dr. Dowdell emphasizes the importance of caring, compassionate adults’ involvement in young people’s lives. She notes these individuals’ presence can not only shield youths from potentially hazardous situations but give them the tools to cope with traumatic episodes and feelings of despair. “The critical factor that helps children become resilient is having a support system—having family members, parents or trusted adults with whom they can talk,” Dr. Dowdell shared. “They might go down the rabbit hole, but they have someone to pull them out, someone to help them.” For adults concerned about their loved ones’ social media use, Dr. Dowdell stresses that empathy and understanding are key. In turn, she advocates for an approach that reflects the supposed purpose of Facebook and platforms like it: active conversation. “It all comes back to communication,” she said. “Parents and guardians need to role-model responsible behaviors. They need to talk about these things: ‘What did you look at today?’ ‘What was good?’ ‘What was bad?’ ‘What did you think?’ ‘How did you feel about that?’ “It’s much like, when children are little, reading them books. When we read to children, we engage them… Why not read the social media feeds, look at the Facebook posts or go through Instagram? These forms of engagement, the conversations we have, let them know they can come and talk.”

Elizabeth  Burgess Dowdell, PhD

2 min

Making Children's Mental Health and School Safety a Priority

The U.S. Department of Education announced $71.6 million in grant awards to enhance safety in schools and improve student access to mental health resources. The grants will allow local leaders to tailor their approach to school safety and mental health in ways that meet their students' individual needs and their particular school's unique challenges. "This is a strong step towards helping children across the U.S. who have experienced traumatic events. We know from previous research that traumatic experiences, even those in early childhood, affect an individual at any time in their life," says Elizabeth Dowdell, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor at Villanova's M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing. "In healthcare, assessing, identifying and treating trauma has become a major public health challenge since trauma exposures frequently go unrecognized and unaddressed." The same is true in the educational system. For many children, adolescents, and adults, trauma results from an event, series of events or set of circumstances which are perceived or experienced to be physically or emotionally harmful or life-threatening. The landmark Adverse Childhood Experience study (1998) found that, in a population of 17,377 adult participants, 63% experienced at least one trauma exposure as a child and 20% experienced more than three trauma exposures. The experience of repeated trauma is sometimes referred to as toxic stress, which can have damaging effects on learning, behavior and health across the life span. These exposures included physical and sexual abuse, neglect and household dysfunction. Increased stress from family violence and chaos is trauma and, when combined with injury, is the leading preventable cause of morbidity and mortality. The lasting adverse effects from the trauma can affect a child's functioning and well-being, specifically mental and physical health, social, emotional and spiritual well-being as they age and develop. "Healthcare is shifting to a trauma-informed framework that focuses on what happened to the person rather than what is wrong with them and recognizes that individual's strengths and resilience. Schools are ideal locations for identification of traumatized children and the implementation of services to help them," says Dr. Dowdell. "School districts have to create physical safety and psychological safe places where all children can learn."

Elizabeth  Burgess Dowdell, PhD

Areas of Expertise

Cyberbullying
Gun Violence
Health Risk Behaviors in Children and Adolescents
Internet Safety
Sleep Texting
Violence and Victimology

Biography

The use of social media across the globe is expanding exponentially as the number of social media outlets, applications, and access continue to increase. Along with this growth in connectivity come concerns about child Internet victimization as well as new phenomena associated with technology. Dr. Dowdell is an expert in the use of social media by teens and the health risks posed by their online behaviors. She can address how risky online behaviors endanger vulnerable children, how technology affects a child’s and family’s everyday life and the emergence of new technology-related behaviors like sleep texting.

Education

University of Pennsylvania

PhD

Boston College

MS

Vanderbilt University

BSN

Select Accomplishments

Villanova University Outstanding Faculty Research Award

2023
The award selection committee noted Dr. Dowdell’s impressive, groundbreaking scholarship in critical areas related to child and adolescent health, safety and well-being which has an important and wide-ranging impact across disciplines; also cited was her how her innovative work has helped shape policy.

American Academy of Nursing Fellow

2012
Inducted as a fellow in to the American Academy of Nursing.

Affiliations

  • Consultant, U.S. Department of Justice, The Office of Juvenile Justice and Deinquency Prevention

Select Media Appearances

Verbal Abuse Can Cause Lasting Harm. Here's Why.

USA Today  online

2025-05-15

In addition to weaponizing words, forms of verbal abuse can also include especially harsh tones, yelling, employing the silent treatment or behaviors that are "used to manipulate, intimidate and maintain power and control over someone," says Elizabeth Dowdell, a professor of pediatrics at the Villanova University M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing.

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Wisconsin Police Search for Answers in Rare Case of Female School Shooter

Reuters  online

2024-12-18

Males often have easier access to firearms, and many shooters model themselves after previous attackers, most of whom were men. Some sociologists also view mass shootings as "reflective of a pathology of toxic masculinity," Metzl said. And, of course, men are more likely to commit violent crimes in general, not just school shootings.

But other factors common to school shootings - bullying, isolation, social media - are not specific to boys. Data also shows an increase in aggression and violence among adolescent girls in recent years, according to Elizabeth Dowdell, a professor of nursing at Villanova University who has studied school shootings.

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The Supremacy of the Supreme Court

SiriusXM's The John Fugelsang Podcast  radio

2024-05-23

In this episode - John interviews Dr. Elizabeth Dowdell, who is a professor in the Nursing department at Villanova University and an expert in child and adolescent mental health. They discuss her smartphone related Ted X talk entitled - "Interrupted Sleep: College Students Sleeping with Technology".

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Research Grants

Self-Exploitation and Electronic Aggression: High Risk Internet Behaviors in Adolescents

U.S. Department of Justice, OJJDP

Principal Investigator

A Multi-prong Approach to Child Internet Safety

U.S. Department of Justice, OJJDP

Principal Investigator

Promoting Internet Child Safety: High School Students and Focus Groups

Villanova College of Nursing

Principal Investigator

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Select Academic Articles

School Shooters: Patterns of Adverse Childhood Experiences, Bullying, and Social Media

Journal of Pediatric Health Care

Elizabeth Burgess Dowdell, Erin Freitas, Alanna Owens, Meredith MacKenzie Greenle

2022

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American Academy of Nursing on policy: Recommendations in response to mass shootings

Nursing Outlook

Rosa M. Gonzalez-Guarda, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN*, Elizabeth Burgess Dowdell, PhD, RN, FAAN, Marie Ann Marino, EdD, RN, FAAN, Jocelyn C. Anderson, PhD, RN, Kathryn Laughon, PhD, RN, FAAN

2018

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Adolescent Suicide Cases: Toxicology Reports and Prescription Drugs

The Journal for Nurse Practitioners

Carrie M. Carretta, PhD, APN, AHN-BC, Ann W. Burgess, DSNc, RNCS, Elizabeth B. Dowdell, PhD, RN, and Barbara A. Caldwell, PhD, APN-BC

2018

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