{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,1]],"date-time":"2026-10-01T17:12:28Z","timestamp":1790874748414,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1769644800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This study explores the generation path and influencing factors of digital health literacy (DHL) among adolescents (aged 12\u201322), addressing gaps in the research by giving insufficient attention to underage youth and the lack of qualitative exploration.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Adopting grounded theory, 74 semistructured online interviews were conducted with adolescents across 18 Chinese provinces, generating 190 thousand words of anonymized text. Through open, axial, and selective coding, 33 initial concepts, 14 core categories, and 6 main categories (literacy foundation, active exploration, passive arousal, positive effects, negative impact, and practical problems) were identified.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The results show that a literacy foundation (digital equipment\/channels), active exploration (self-improvement\/disease management), and passive arousal (media influence\/environmental immersion) promote adolescent DHL, whereas negative impacts (health anxiety\/information security) and practical problems (misinformation\/supply shortages) hinder it. DHL benefits adolescents individually (fostering health actions, conceptual reconstruction, and habit formation) and socially (enabling digital feedback for health knowledge dissemination). This study also constructed an adolescent DHL generation path model and identified three paths, including the cognitive-environmental synergy path, action-technology driven path, and anxiety-action transformation path, collectively revealing the diverse formation mechanisms of adolescents\u2019 DHL.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Practical suggestions for improving adolescents\u2019 DHL were proposed. The results provided insights into enhancing adolescent DHL and support the optimization of adolescents\u2019 health trajectory via digital tools.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1700118","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T14:17:45Z","timestamp":1769696265000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["The influencing factors and generation path of digital health literacy among adolescents: evidence from 18 provinces in China"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Yi","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Journalism and Communication, Guangzhou University","place":["Guangzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qingwei","family":"Zeng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Journalism and Communication, Guangzhou University","place":["Guangzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mengyuan","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Education, Guangzhou University","place":["Guangzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e0000279","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pdig.0000279","article-title":"Digital literacy as a new determinant of health: a scoping review","volume":"2","author":"Arias L\u00f3pez","year":"2023","journal-title":"PLoS Digit Health"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"104515952311782","DOI":"10.1177\/10451595231178298","article-title":"Fundamentals of digital health literacy: a scoping review of identifying core competencies to use in practice","volume":"35","author":"Kim","year":"2023","journal-title":"Adult 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