Candice Odgers
Professor Psychological Science | UC Irvine
Irvine, CA, UNITED STATES
Candice Odgers is a developmental psychologist who studies adolescents’ mental health and development.
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Biography
Candice Odgers is a developmental psychologist who studies adolescents’ mental health and development. Her research team tracks adolescents’ daily mental health and device use via smartphones and has built new virtual tools for capturing the neighborhoods where children live and attend school.
Areas of Expertise (7)
Early Adversity
Quantitative Psychology
Social Inequality
Technology and Young People
Digital Inequality
Developmental Psychology
Adolescent Mental Health
Accomplishments (5)
Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest Early Career Award (professional)
2015 American Psychological Association
Janet Taylor Spence Award (professional)
2012 Association for Psychological Science
Excellence in Mentorship Award (professional)
2012 Institute for Clinical and Translational Science
Early Career Contributions Award (professional)
2011 Society for Research on Child Development
Distinguished Assistant Professor Award for Research (professional)
2010 University of California, Irvine
Education (3)
University of Virginia: PhD, Psychology 2005
Simon Fraser University: MA 2001
Simon Fraser University: BA 1999
Affiliations (2)
- Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology : Editorial Board
- Perspectives on Psychological Science : Editorial Board
Links (8)
Media Appearances (12)
What research actually says about social media and kids’ health
The Washington Post online
2024-06-17
Most experts call for a measured approach to discussing social media’s potential health impacts, but not all. … Other researchers, including University of California, Irvine psychologist Candice Odgers, have said the book misinterpreted existing studies to fuel a moral panic. … “This book is going to sell a lot of copies, because Jonathan Haidt is telling a scary story about children’s development that many parents are primed to believe,” Odgers wrote in an essay for Nature.
The panic over smartphones doesn’t help teens
The Atlantic online
2024-05-21
Candice Odgers, UC Irvine professor of psychological science, writes: “Smartphones and social media are melting our children’s brains and making them depressed, or so goes the story we are being told. The headlines are constant; it’s enough to make any parent want to shut off every smart device in their home. Fortunately for my kids, who enjoy a good “cat attacks dog” video on TikTok, I go to work each day and see what adolescents are really up to on their devices. And it turns out that the story behind teen social-media use is much different from what most adults think.”
Jonathan Haidt Blamed Tech for Teen Anxiety. Managing the Blowback Has Become a Full-Time Job.
The Wall Street Journal online
2024-05-10
A review in the prestigious journal Nature says there’s no evidence to support his theory and accuses him of fearmongering. “Worse, the bold proposal that social media is to blame might distract us from effectively responding to the real causes of the current mental-health crisis in young people,” Candice L. Odgers, a psychology professor and associate dean for research at the University of California, Irvine, wrote in Nature.
Opinion: Are Smartphones Driving Our Teens to Depression?
The New York Times online
2024-05-01
Candice Odgers, of the University of California, Irvine, … published a much-debated review of [Jonathan] Haidt’s [new book] in Nature, in which she declared “the book’s repeated suggestion that digital technologies are rewiring our children’s brains and causing an epidemic of mental illness is not supported by science.”
The Battle Over Gen Z Minds - Sad, Bad Or Mad?
Forbes online
2024-05-01
Candice L. Odgers, associate dean for research and a professor of psychological science and informatics at the University of California, Irvine …. recently published a review of [Jonathan] Haidt’s book in Nature warning against over-blaming tech and social media for the state of the world’s young. She says that this allows us to take our eye off the ball of other potential causes – and solutions – too quickly. “We have a generation in crisis,” she writes, “and in desperate need of the best of what science and evidence-based solutions can offer. Unfortunately, our time is being spent telling stories that are unsupported by research and that do little to support young people who need, and deserve, more.”
The Anxious Generation wants to save teens. But the bestseller’s anti-tech logic is skewed
The Guardian online
2024-04-27
But as the University of California, Irvine, psychology professor Candice Odgers asked in her critique of The Anxious Generation in Nature, “Is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness?” The answer, per Odgers, is no. Blisteringly, she accuses [Jonathan] Haidt of “making up stories by simply looking at trend lines” and says his book’s core argument “is not supported by science”. Haidt makes the basic error of mistaking correlation with causation, she says. In a review of 40 previous studies published in 2020, Odgers found no cause-effect relationship between smartphone ownership, social media usage and adolescents’ mental health.
The Anxious Generation wants to save teens. But the bestseller’s anti-tech logic is skewed
The Guardian online
2024-04-27
But as the University of California, Irvine, psychology professor Candice Odgers asked in her critique of The Anxious Generation in Nature, “Is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness?” The answer, per Odgers, is no. Blisteringly, she accuses [Jonathan] Haidt of “making up stories by simply looking at trend lines” and says his book’s core argument “is not supported by science”. Haidt makes the basic error of mistaking correlation with causation, she says. In a review of 40 previous studies published in 2020, Odgers found no cause-effect relationship between smartphone ownership, social media usage and adolescents’ mental health.
The Anxious Generation wants to save teens. But the bestseller’s anti-tech logic is skewed
The Guardian online
2024-04-27
But as the University of California, Irvine, psychology professor Candice Odgers asked in her critique of The Anxious Generation in Nature, “Is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness?” The answer, per Odgers, is no. Blisteringly, she accuses [Jonathan] Haidt of “making up stories by simply looking at trend lines” and says his book’s core argument “is not supported by science”. Haidt makes the basic error of mistaking correlation with causation, she says. In a review of 40 previous studies published in 2020, Odgers found no cause-effect relationship between smartphone ownership, social media usage and adolescents’ mental health.
The Battle Over Gen Z Minds - Sad, Bad Or Mad?
Forbes online
2024-05-01
Candice L. Odgers, associate dean for research and a professor of psychological science and informatics at the University of California, Irvine …. recently published a review of [Jonathan] Haidt’s book in Nature warning against over-blaming tech and social media for the state of the world’s young. She says that this allows us to take our eye off the ball of other potential causes – and solutions – too quickly. “We have a generation in crisis,” she writes, “and in desperate need of the best of what science and evidence-based solutions can offer. Unfortunately, our time is being spent telling stories that are unsupported by research and that do little to support young people who need, and deserve, more.”
Opinion: Are Smartphones Driving Our Teens to Depression?
The New York Times online
2024-05-01
Candice Odgers, of the University of California, Irvine, … published a much-debated review of [Jonathan] Haidt’s [new book] in Nature, in which she declared “the book’s repeated suggestion that digital technologies are rewiring our children’s brains and causing an epidemic of mental illness is not supported by science.”
Jonathan Haidt Blamed Tech for Teen Anxiety. Managing the Blowback Has Become a Full-Time Job.
The Wall Street Journal online
2024-05-10
A review in the prestigious journal Nature says there’s no evidence to support his theory and accuses him of fearmongering. “Worse, the bold proposal that social media is to blame might distract us from effectively responding to the real causes of the current mental-health crisis in young people,” Candice L. Odgers, a psychology professor and associate dean for research at the University of California, Irvine, wrote in Nature.
The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness?
Nature online
2024-04-29
Candice Odgers, UC Irvine professor of psychological science and informatics, writes: “Two things need to be said after reading The Anxious Generation. First, this book is going to sell a lot of copies, because Jonathan Haidt is telling a scary story about children’s development that many parents are primed to believe. Second, the book’s repeated suggestion that digital technologies are rewiring our children’s brains and causing an epidemic of mental illness is not supported by science. Worse, the bold proposal that social media is to blame might distract us from effectively responding to the real causes of the current mental-health crisis in young people.”
Articles (8)
Annual Research Review: Adolescent mental health in the digital age: facts, fears, and future directions
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry2020 Adolescents are spending an increasing amount of their time online and connected to each other via digital technologies. Mobile device ownership and social media usage have reached unprecedented levels, and concerns have been raised that this constant connectivity is harming adolescents’ mental health.
Young Adolescents' Digital Technology Use, Perceived Impairments, and Well-Being in a Representative Sample
The Journal of Pediatrics2020 To examine the cross-sectional associations between young adolescents' access, use, and perceived impairments related to digital technologies and their academic, psychological, and physical well-being.
Adolescents’ perceptions of family social status correlate with health and life chances: A twin difference longitudinal cohort study
PNAS2020 Despite growing up in the same family, siblings do not always see their family’s social standing identically. Eighteen-year-old twins who rated their family as having higher social standing, compared with their cotwin’s rating, had fewer difficulties negotiating the transition to adulthood: they were less likely to be convicted of a crime, not in education, employment, or training, and had fewer mental health problems.
Biological embedding of experience: A primer on epigenetics
PNAS2019 Biological embedding occurs when life experience alters biological processes to affect later life health and well-being. Although extensive correlative data exist supporting the notion that epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation underlie biological embedding, causal data are lacking. We describe specific epigenetic mechanisms and their potential roles in the biological embedding of experience.
Smartphones are bad for some teens, not all
Nature2018 Last year, I received a phone call from an angry father. He had just read in the newspaper about my research suggesting that some adolescents might benefit from time spent online. Once, he raged, his children had been fully engaged with family and church and had talked non-stop at meal times. Now, as adolescents who were constantly connected to their phones, they had disappeared into their online lives.
Persistence and Fadeout in the Impacts of Child and Adolescent Interventions
Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness2015 Many interventions targeting cognitive skills or socioemotional skills and behaviors demonstrate initially promising but then quickly disappearing impacts. Our article seeks to identify the key features of interventions, as well as the characteristics and environments of the children and adolescents who participate in them, that can be expected to sustain persistently beneficial program impacts.
Seven Fears and the Science of How Mobile Technologies May Be Influencing Adolescents in the Digital Age
Perspectives on Psychological Science2015 Close to 90% of U.S. adolescents now own or have access to a mobile phone, and they are using them frequently. Adolescents send and receive an average of over 60 text messages per day from their devices, and over 90% of adolescents now access the Internet from a mobile device at least occasionally. Many adults are asking how this constant connectivity is influencing adolescents’ development.
Systematic social observation of children’s neighborhoods using Google Street View: a reliable and cost‐effective method
The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry2012 Children growing up in poor versus affluent neighborhoods are more likely to spend time in prison, develop health problems and die at an early age. The question of how neighborhood conditions influence our behavior and health has attracted the attention of public health officials and scholars for generations. Online tools are now providing new opportunities to measure neighborhood features and may provide a cost effective way to advance our understanding of neighborhood effects on child health.
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