Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab
Wellesley Centers for Women
Our name sums it up. We study a breadth of issues related to youth, the media in which they are immersed, and implications for wellbeing.
We strive to understand how adolescents identify and express themselves as well as the ways that practitioners and families can promote young people’s sense of self and agency. We are particularly interested in girls and underrepresented young people whose lives may not be extensively researched or understood.
This research has been made possible with the support of the National Institutes for Health, Children and Screens: Institute Digital Media & Child Development, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Wellesley Centers for Women, among others.
Senior Research Scientist Linda Charmaraman, Ph.D., co-authored this "Health advisory on social media use in adolescence", released by the American Psychological Association. The advisory examines potential beneficial and harmful effects of social media use on adolescents’ social, educational, psychological, and neurological development, and provides recommendations based on the scientific evidence to date.
