Misinformation and Teenagers: The Role of Social and Emotional Learning in Media and Information Literacy

Abstract

Misinformation has become a pressing concern for teenagers navigating today's digital and AI-mediated information environments. Although young people are often described as vulnerable to misinformation, they are not only passive recipients of misleading content; they also actively consume, share, remix, and create digital information. In these contexts, misinformation is not only a problem of factual accuracy, but also a social and emotional phenomenon shaped by humor, peer influence, identity, trust, reputation, and responsibility. While Media and Information Literacy (MIL) remains a central educational approach for addressing misinformation through fact-checking, source evaluation, and critical analysis, these cognitive skills alone may not fully prepare teenagers to respond to misinformation in emotionally charged and socially situated digital environments. This dissertation examines how Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), guided by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework, can be meaningfully integrated into misinformation education for teenagers. Grounded in the five CASEL competencies of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making, the study explores how SEL can complement MIL by foregrounding emotional awareness, empathy, perspective-taking, ethical judgment, and responsible digital participation. Using a two-phase qualitative research design, this study brings together educator perspectives and teenagers' lived experiences. Phase I consists of interviews with educators experienced in SEL, MIL, and youth learning to examine how they understand the possibilities and challenges of integrating SEL into misinformation education. Phase II explores teenagers' experiences in an SEL-based misinformation learning module that combines a misinformation simulation game, structured debriefing, role-play, visual reflection, and a community message activity. The findings suggest that SEL can broaden misinformation education by helping teenagers connect information practices to emotion, relationships, harm, and agency. Educators viewed SEL as a practical foundation for helping teenagers pause, reflect, consider others, and make more responsible choices in socially complex digital situations. Teenagers interpreted misinformation not only as false or misleading information, but also as something connected to embarrassment, trust, peer relationships, reputation, AI-generated content, and social responsibility. Among the CASEL competencies, self-awareness, social awareness, and responsible decision-making were especially visible in teenagers' reflections, while self-management and relationship skills appeared less directly and may require more explicit instructional support. This dissertation contributes an empathy-centered approach to SEL-MIL integration. It argues that misinformation education should move beyond asking whether information is true or false and also ask who may be affected, why people participate, and how teenagers can respond with care. The study offers five instructional design recommendations for SEL-MIL learning experiences. Together, these findings suggest that SEL-based misinformation education can support teenagers in becoming not only critical evaluators of information, but also empathetic, reflective, and socially responsible participants in digital life.