Peer-reviewed article
The ReDiKid framework: a transdisciplinary systems approach to child resilience in the digital age
Jana Pelclová, Leen d'Haenens, Marc N. Potenza, Jaroslava Suchá, Aleš Gába et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This paper presents ReDiKid, a conceptual framework for understanding how children aged about 9 to 11 cope with and recover from hardship in a digital world. It treats resilience as a process that is activated by adversity, and it links four areas: body and stress responses, behaviour, social context and digital life. It proposes four pathways (self-regulation, movement, social support and digital competence) and six propositions that can be tested. It also outlines a research design using repeated measurement, wearable sensors and digital tracking. The paper is a theory proposal and does not report results from testing any intervention.
Key points
- Resilience is defined as a higher-order, adversity-activated process through which adaptive functioning is maintained, restored or reorganized over time.
- The framework integrates four domains: psychophysiological, behavioral, contextual and digital.
- Four cross-domain pathways are proposed: self-regulatory capacity, movement regulation, social buffering and digital competence.
- Digital adversity is distinguished from normative digital demands, and resilience is distinguished from competence, adaptive functioning and wellbeing.
- Pathways may vary by developmental stage, sex and gender, structural inequality, culture, neurodivergence, disability and digital access.
Limitations
This is a conceptual framework with no empirical data, so it cannot show whether its propositions hold or whether any approach improves child resilience. The abstract does not name the countries or settings in which it will be tested, so the country codes come only from the metadata hint.
Abstract
Children’s lives are increasingly shaped by digital environments that influence learning, social relationships, daily routines, and exposure to both opportunities and adversity. However, existing approaches often examine digital experiences, self-regulation, movement behaviors, and social context separately. This paper introduces ReDiKid (Resilient Kid in the Digital World), a developmental-systems framework for understanding resilience in late childhood, with a primary focus on children aged approximately 9–11 years. ReDiKid conceptualizes resilience as a higher-order, adversity-activated process through which adaptive functioning is maintained, restored, or reorganized over time. The framework integrates four interacting domains: psychophysiological, behavioral, contextual, and digital. It proposes four cross-domain pathways, self-regulatory capacity, movement regulation, social buffering, and digital competence, through which resources and vulnerabilities may shape responses to adversity, recovery, and subsequent adaptation. The framework distinguishes digital adversity from normative digital demands and differentiates resilience from competence, adaptive functioning, and multidimensional wellbeing. Six directional and empirically contestable propositions specify expected within-person, between-person, event-level, and contextual patterns, including conditions under which the propositions would not be supported. ReDiKid also recognizes that pathway operation may vary according to developmental stage, sex and gender, structural inequality, cultural context, neurodivergence, disability, and patterns of digital access. To support empirical testing, ReDiKid outlines a multimodal methodological architecture combining intensive longitudinal designs, ecological momentary assessment, wearable sensing, passive digital tracking, contextual data, and advanced longitudinal and multilevel analyses. ReDiKid provides a common conceptual foundation for coordinated study-specific protocols and cumulative theory development concerning child resilience in digitally mediated contexts.