Research & Publications

  • Open Science

    Our research aspires to be of the highest scientific standards and applies a variety of Open Science approaches. We actively encourage work that aims to improve research practices and methods.

  • Inclusive Science

    We care deeply about doing science that helps people, locally or around the world. This extends beyond studying diverse populations, to studying research questions that diverse populations care about.

  • Team Science

    We work together as a group and care about creating a collaborative, inclusive and creative environment, here at Cambridge and with our collaborators both nationally and internationally.

List of Publications

Preprints

Yap, V., Skeggs, A., Ferguson, A., Leyland-Craggs, A., Boeschoten, L., Welbers, K., Kurten, S., & Orben, A. (2024). Digital data donation with adolescents. https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/hnvpy

Turner, G., Gunschera, L. J., Subrahmanya, S., Salecha, A., Eichstaedt, J. C., Palminteri, S.*, & Orben, A.* (2024). A computational model of reward learning and habits on social media. https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/xe25k

Skeggs, A., & Orben, A. (2024). Social media interventions to improve wellbeing. https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/u9wqc

Turner, G., Ferguson, A. M., Katiyar, T., Palminteri, S., & Orben, A. (2024). Old strategies, new environments: Reinforcement Learning on social media. https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/f5cjv

Kurten, S., Ghai, S., Odgers, C., Kievit, R., & Orben, A. (2023). Deprivation’s role in adolescent social media use and its links to life satisfaction. psyarxiv. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.12.23295355v1.full-text

Publications

2024

Fassi, L., Thomas, K., Parry, D. A., Leyland-Craggs, A., Ford, T., & Orben, A. (2024). Social media use and internalising symptoms in clinical and community adolescent samples: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Jama Pediatrics. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2819781?guestaccesskey=3b8a9f61-3bde-4514-a250-d804b006ca4d

Orben, A., Meier, A., Dalgleish, T., & Blakemore, S. J. (2024). Mechanisms linking social media use to adolescent mental health vulnerability. Nature Reviews Psychology, 1-17. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44159-024-00307-y

Ferguson, A., Turner, G., & Orben, A. (2024). Social uncertainty in the digital world. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2024.02.005

Miller, J., Mills, K. L., Vuorre, M., Orben, A., & Przybylski, A. K. (2024). Impact of digital screen media activity on functional brain organization in late childhood: evidence from the ABCD study. Cortex, 169, 290-308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2023.09.009

2023

David, C., De Gelder, B., Caldarelli, G., de Rosnay, M.D., Casilli, A.A., Delanoë, A., Fassi, L., Frau-Meigs, D., Jouve, B., Nowak, A., Rodríguez-Doncel, V., […] Orben, A., […] , 2023. Toward a Research Agenda on Digital Media and Humanity Well-Being. CNRS. https://hal.science/hal-04091733/

Piera Pi‐Sunyer, B., Andrews, J. L., Orben, A., Speyer, L. G., & Blakemore, S. J. (2023). The relationship between perceived income inequality, adverse mental health and interpersonal difficulties in UK adolescents. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 64(3), 417-425. https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jcpp.13719

Orben, A., & Blakemore, S. J. (2023). How social media affects teen mental health: A missing link. Nature, 614(7948), 410-412. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00402-9

Lamberton, C., Wein, T., & Ghai, S. (2023). From What to How: Dignity, Human Rights, and the Sustainable Development Goals. Human Rights, and the Sustainable Development Goals. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4380622

Ghai, S., de-Wit, L., & Mak, Y. (2023). How we investigated the diversity of our undergraduate curriculum. Nature. https://europepmc.org/article/med/36859679

Livingstone, S., Orben, A., & Odgers, C. (2023). Debate: Should academics collaborate with digital companies to improve young people's mental health?. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 28(1), 150-152. https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/camh.12630

McCrosky, J. D., Parry, D. A., Sewall, C. J., & Orben, A. (2023). Using Browser Data to Understand Desires to Spend Time Online. https://assets.pubpub.org/rfdjthbg/51678401203465.pdf

2022

Metherell, T. E., Ghai, S., McCormick, E. M., Ford, T. J., & Orben, A. (2022). Digital access constraints predict worse mental health among adolescents during COVID-19. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 19088. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-23899-y

Orben, A., Lucas, R. E., Fuhrmann, D., & Kievit, R. A. (2022). Trajectories of adolescent life satisfaction. Royal Society open science, 9(8), 211808. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.211808

Minihan, S., Orben, A., Songco, A., Fox, E., Ladouceur, C. D., Mewton, L., ... & Schweizer, S. (2022). Social determinants of mental health during a year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Development and Psychopathology, 1-13. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/development-and-psychopathology/article/social-determinants-of-mental-health-during-a-year-of-the-covid19-pandemic/4489DFD61F88A0400D21DAA6CDA40085

Kievit, R. A., McCormick, E. M., Fuhrmann, D., Deserno, M. K., & Orben, A. (2022). Using large, publicly available data sets to study adolescent development: opportunities and challenges. Current Opinion in Psychology, 44, 303-308. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X21001950

Orben, A., Przybylski, A. K., Blakemore, S. J., & Kievit, R. A. (2022). Windows of developmental sensitivity to social media. Nature Communications, 13(1), 1649. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29296-3

Ghai, S., Magis-Weinberg, L., Stoilova, M., Livingstone, S., & Orben, A. (2022). Social media and adolescent well-being in the Global South. Current Opinion in Psychology, 101318. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X22000288

Modecki, K. L., Goldberg, R. E., Wisniewski, P., & Orben, A. (2022). What is digital parenting? A systematic review of past measurement and blueprint for the future. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17(6), 1673-1691. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/17456916211072458

Orben, A. (2022). Digital diet: A 21st century approach to understanding digital technologies and development. Infant and Child Development, 31(1), e2228. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/icd.2228

Ghai, S. (2022). The diversity–innovation paradox. Nature Reviews Psychology, 1(2), 66-66. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44159-021-00009-9

Ghai, S. (2022). Expand diversity definitions beyond their Western perspective. Nature, 602(7896), 211-211. https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v602y2022i7896d10.1038_d41586-022-00330-0.html

2021

Ghai, S., Fassi, L., Awadh, F., & Orben, A. (2021). Lack of sample diversity in research on adolescent depression and social media use: a scoping review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychological Science. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/21677026221114859

Vuorre, M., Orben, A., & Przybylski, A. K. (2021). There is no evidence that associations between adolescents’ digital technology engagement and mental health problems have increased. Clinical Psychological Science, 9(5), 823-835. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2167702621994549

Ghai, S. (2021). Getting personal. Science, 374(6565), 366-366. https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.acx9301

Ghai, S. (2021). It’s time to reimagine sample diversity and retire the WEIRD dichotomy. Nature Human Behaviour, 5(8), 971-972. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01175-9

2020

Przybylski, A. K., Orben, A., & Weinstein, N. (2020). How much is too much? Examining the relationship between digital screen engagement and psychosocial functioning in a confirmatory cohort study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 59(9), 1080-1088. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890856719314376

Orben, A., Tomova, L., & Blakemore, S. J. (2020). The effects of social deprivation on adolescent development and mental health. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 4(8), 634-640. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352464220301863

Orben, A., Weinstein, N., & Przybylski, A. K. (2020). Only holistic and iterative change will fix digital technology research. Psychological Inquiry, 31(3), 235-241. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1047840X.2020.1820221

Orben, A. (2020). The Sisyphean cycle of technology panics. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(5), 1143-1157. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1745691620919372

Orben, A., & Przybylski, A. K. (2020). Reply to: Underestimating digital media harm. Nature Human Behaviour, 4(4), 349-351. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0840-y

Orben, A. (2020). Teenagers, screens and social media: a narrative review of reviews and key studies. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 55(4), 407-414. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00127-019-01825-4?wt_mc=Internal.Event.1.SEM.ArticleAuthorOnlineFirst&utm_source=ArticleAuthorOnlineFirst&utm_medium=email&utm_content=AA_en_06082018&ArticleAuthorOnlineFirst_20200111?utm_source=modulosPL&utm_medium=linkinterno&utm_campaign=ux

Orben, A., & Przybylski, A. K. (2020). Teenage sleep and technology engagement across the week. PeerJ, 8, e8427. https://peerj.com/articles/8427/

K. Kaye, L., Orben, A., A. Ellis, D., C. Hunter, S., & Houghton, S. (2020). The conceptual and methodological mayhem of “screen time”. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(10), 3661. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/10/3661

Orben, A., & Lakens, D. (2020). Crud (re) defined. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 3(2), 238-247. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2515245920917961

2019

Orben, A. (2019). A journal club to fix science. Nature, 573(7775), 465-466. https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA600698972&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00280836&p=HRCA&sw=w

Orben, A., Dienlin, T., & Przybylski, A. K. (2019). Reply to Foster and Jackson: Open scientific practices are the way forward for social media effects research. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(31), 15334-15335. https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1909553116

Orben, A., Dienlin, T., & Przybylski, A. K. (2019). Social media’s enduring effect on adolescent life satisfaction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(21), 10226-10228. https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1902058116

Orben, A., & Przybylski, A. K. (2019). The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use. Nature human behaviour, 3(2), 173-182. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562%20018%200506%201

Orben, A., & Przybylski, A. K. (2019). Screens, teens, and psychological well-being: Evidence from three time-use-diary studies. Psychological science, 30(5), 682-696. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0956797619830329

2018

Orben, A., Mutak, A., Dablander, F., Hecht, M., Krawiec, J. M., Valkovičová, N., & Kosīte, D. (2018). From face-to-face to Facebook: Probing the effects of passive consumption on interpersonal attraction. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1163. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01163/full

2017

Orben, A. C., & Dunbar, R. I. (2017). Social media and relationship development: The effect of valence and intimacy of posts. Computers in Human Behavior, 73, 489-498. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563217302364