Ass.-Prof. Dr. Kathrin Karsay
Main Research Interests
- Digital Media Use and Well-Being
- Mobile Communication
- Digital Disconnection
- Mental Health and Social Media
- Health Communication
Kathrin Karsay is an Assistant Professor (tenure track) at the Department of Communication at the University of Vienna. After completing her doctorate in 2018 at the University of Vienna, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Vienna and at KU Leuven, where she also served as Assistant Professor in Health Communication from 2021 to 2023.
Dr. Karsay studies how digital media shape health, well-being, and identity, particularly among adolescents and young adults. She also examines strategies for mindful and healthy mobile media use, including digital disconnection. She has published her multidisciplinary work in leading peer-reviewed journals, including Media Psychology, Communication Research, Social Science & Medicine, and Telematics and Informatics. Her scientific achievements have been recognized with multiple awards, including the ICA Kyoon Hur Dissertation Award, the Austrian Award of Excellence, the Sowi-Doc Award, and multiple Top Paper Awards from the International Communication Association.
Her research is funded by competitive third-party grants. She is currently involved in three large research projects: 1) a multinational AWARE project (FWF/SNSF/DFG) studying mental health content on social media, 2) a FWF-funded project on health influencers (HISM), and 3) a PROMISE consortium project on evidence-based social media policies. She is currently supervising six doctoral projects: four at the University of Vienna, one in cooperation with KU Leuven, and one with LMU Munich. Karsay currently serves as Associate Editor of Psychology of Popular Media, and an editorial board member of several journals (including Media Psychology, Journal of Early Adolescence, and European Journal of Health Communication).
Kathrin Karsay
Tenure Track-Professur für Unterhaltungsforschung
EmailCopy email to clipboardPublications
2026
Beelen, E., Karsay, K., & Beullens, K. (2026). Examining the impact of mental health content on Instagram: The role of empathy and lived experience. Medien Journal: Zeitschrift für Kommunikationskultur, 50(1), 49–76. https://doi.org/10.60764/1025-9473.2026.01.3
2025
Engel, E., Gell, S., Karsay, K., & Heiss, R. (2025). Engagement With Influencers as Sources of Health Information and Product Promotions: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Austrian Youth Aged 15-25 Years. Journal of Adolescent Health, 78(1), 157-165. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2025.09.001
Noon, E. J., Maes, C., Karsay, K., Yang, C.-C., Pesout, O., & Stefańczyk, M. M. (2025). From Stigma to Strength? The Interrelations Between Sexual Identity Stigma, Well-Being, and Accepting Communities on Instagram Amongst Sexual Minority Youth. Journal of Adolescence, 97(4), 917-930. https://doi.org/10.1002/jad.12465
Karsay, K., Thomas, M. F., & Matthes, J. (2025). Inspiration for perspiration? Two experiments testing the psychological effects of fitspiration. Psychology of Popular Media, 14(3), 339-353. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000605
von Sikorski, C., Merz, P., Heiss, R., Karsay, K., Naderer, B., & Schmuck, D. (2025). The Political Role of Social Media Influencers: Strategies, Types, and Implications for Democracy—An Introduction. American Behavioral Scientist. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642251344208
Vandenbosch, L., Konings, F., Fitzgerald, K., Fardouly, J., Beelen, E., Tabruyn, T., Karsay, K., & Maes, C. (2025). Adolescents’ Sexualized Self-Presentations on Social Media: A Cross-National Data Donation Study. Media Psychology, 29(2). Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2025.2509500
Maes, C., Karsay, K., & Noon, E. J. (2025). The Opportunities and Challenges of Digital Media Use for Sexually and Gender Diverse Adolescents. In Sexually and Gender Diverse Adolescents: Critical Perspectives on Risk and Resilience (pp. 92-101). Taylor and Francis Inc.. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003479055-11
2024
Engel, E., Gell, S. A., Karsay, K., & Schmidhofer, J. (2024). "Influencer-Monitor" – Eine Citizen Science Studie mit Jugendlichen zu Gesundheitsinhalten in sozialen Medien: [“Influencer-Monitor” – A Citizen Science Study with Adolescents on Health Content in Social Media]. In S. Gross, C. Schöpf, B. Wild, K. Wirnitzer, & M. Überall (Eds.), transfer Forschung ↔ Schule Heft 10: Nachhaltig gesund - bewegen, essen, kompetenzorientiert lernen (Vol. 10, pp. 2012-2016). Verlag Julius Klinkhardt.
Nassen, L. M., Karsay, K., Vandenbosch, L., & Schreurs, L. (2024). Exploring adolescents' social media connection and disconnection: A latent class approach. Media and Communication , 12, Article 8597. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.8597
Beelen, E., & Karsay, K. (2024). “The Future Is Bright! Is It?”: Investigating Effects of Hopeful Mental Health Content and Endorsement Cues on Social Media. Social Media and Society, 10(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241277603
Stevic, A., Schmuck, D., Thomas, M. F., Karsay, K., & Matthes, J. (2024). Distracted children? Nighttime smartphone use, children's attentional problems, and school performance over time. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 44(2), 223-249. https://doi.org/10.1177/02724316231164734
Wolfers, L. N., & Karsay, K. (2024). THE SMARTPHONE AS PHYSICAL OBJECT: Advancing The Debate on Problematic Smartphone Use. In The Mobile Media Debate: Challenging Viewpoints Across Epistemologies (pp. 37-51). Taylor and Francis Inc.. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003312963-5
Engel, E., Gell, S. A., Heiss, R., & Karsay, K. (2024). Social media influencers and adolescents’ health: A scoping review of the research field. Social Science & Medicine, 340, Article 116387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116387
Noon, E. J., Maes, C., Karsay, K., & Vandenbosch, L. (2024). Making the Good Better? Investigating the Long-Term Associations Between Capitalization on Social Media and Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction. Media Psychology, 27(2), 161-185. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2023.2227941
Wolfers, L., & Karsay, K. (2024). The Smartphone as Physical Object: Advancing the Debate on Problematic Smartphone Use^. Manuscript in preparation. In The Mobile Media Debate: Challenging Viewpoints Across Epistemologies Routledge, Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/5QRUW, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003312963
2023
Matthes, J., Stevic, A., Koban, K., Thomas, M. F., Forrai, M., & Karsay, K. (2023). Fear of missing out, reflective smartphone disengagement, and loneliness in late adolescents. CyberPsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 26(10), 731-738. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2023.0014
Karsay, K., Schmuck, D., Stevic, A., & Matthes, J. (2023). Sleeping with the smartphone: A panel study investigating parental mediation, adolescents' tiredness, and physical well-being. Behaviour & Information Technology, 42(11), 1833-1844. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2022.2100277
Nassen, L. M., Vandebosch, H., Poels, K., & Karsay, K. (2023). Opt-out, abstain, unplug. A systematic review of the voluntary digital disconnection literature. Telematics and Informatics, 81, Article 101980. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2023.101980
Devos, S., Karsay, K., Eggermont, S., & Vandenbosch, L. (2023). “Whatever you do, I can do too”: Disentangling the daily relations between exposure to positive social media content, can self, and pressure. Communication Monographs, 90(4), 437-455. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2023.2206472
Karsay, K., Camerini, A.-L., & Matthes, J. (Eds.) (2023). COVID-19, digital media, and health. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/issue/view/19
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