Nearly 12,000 adolescents from around the country are participating in the 10-year Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study—the biggest longitudinal study of the developing brain undertaken in the U.S. Mother Jones magazine provided an inside look at this massive effort to transform the understanding of how our brains develop. “We’re going to be working with this dataset for decades,” said Center advisor Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer, University of Oregon.
_350_197_80.jpg)
In this webinar, hosted with Spring Point Partners, NSCA member Candice Odgers explored the real risks and benefits of digital technology use during adolescence, and discussed how we can support young people to develop the skills they need to successfully navigate new and existing technology throughout their lives.
NSCA member Candice Odgers was quoted in a New York Times article about the new screen time warning issued by the Surgeon General. Although the warning linked excessive time online to worse sleep issues, anxiety, depression, alcohol use, and other health harms, experts say the research is more nuanced. “Much of the existing research does not suggest that social media use is a major predictor of whether a child will develop mental health issues,” said Candice. Rather, she said, “it suggests that children who are already struggling with mental health or other issues are more likely to spend time online.”
